U.S. stocks post third straight weekly loss, but market volatility eases

U.S. equity markets ended the trading week on a negative note despite better than expected nonfarm payrolls data.

Data released Friday showed the U.S. economy added 315,000 jobs last month, beating economists' average estimates of 298,000 jobs. The unemployment rate in the United States, however, rose to 3.7%, missing the 3.5% level that economists had expected. Wages increased 5.2% year-on-year and 0.3% from July.

However, all gains have faded due to renewed concerns over the Nord Stream pipeline. Russian energy giant Gazprom, which was previously due to resume the flow of natural gas through the pipeline to Germany on September 3, said on Friday it would postpone the resumption, saying leaks had been discovered during the inspection of a compressor station.

The three major indices posted their third consecutive weekly decline, with the Dow Jones falling around 3% and the S&P 500 down around 3.3%. Markets in the United States were closed on Monday for the Labor Day holiday.

The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.44% to close at 12,098.44 on Friday amid falling shares of Apple Inc. AAPL and Meta Platforms, Inc. META. The S&P 500 fell 1.07%, while the Dow fell about 338 points to 31,318.44 in the previous session.

The majority of S&P 500 sectors closed lower, with communications services and real estate stocks posting the biggest declines on Friday. The energy sector, however, bucked the overall market trend, gaining around 1.8% in the previous session.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange's CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) fell 0.35% to close at 25.47 points on Friday.

What is the CBOE Volatility Index?

The CBOE Volatility Index, commonly known as the VIX, is a measure of stock market volatility expectation based on the call and put options of the S&P 500 index.

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