February Jobs Report Shows Another Strong Gain

Stocks slide as concern about Ukraine trumps the strong jobs report.

The European indexes reached their lowest point in about a year on Friday as fighting intensified in Ukraine and government officials accused Russia of shelling Europe's largest nuclear power facility.

The S&P 500 fell after a better than expected jobs report for February. The yield on 10-year notes fell to 1.72 percent as investors sought safe investments.

The Stoxx Europe 600 was down 3.6 percent and was at its lowest point in over a year. The Germany's DAX slid.

Tension in Ukraine and sanctions on Russia have caused stocks to zigzag for the last several weeks. The financial penalties from Western countries have included freezing hundreds of billions of dollars of Russian assets and making many types of foreign investment in the country exceedingly difficult.

Apple, Ikea and TJX, the owner of T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, have stopped doing business in Russia. Shell, TotalEnergies, and other energy companies have said they will not be involved in oil ventures with the country.

European markets and global commodities have shown the financial impact. Germany's DAX index lost more than 9 percent this week and is down nearly 20 percent from its January high. According to Bank of America, investors took billions of dollars out of European stocks. That is the biggest outflow since 2004, when the bank began tracking the data.

The S&P 500 is headed for a weekly decline of 2 percent, but Wall Street has done better.

The Russian stock exchange was closed for the fifth day in a row. Russian stocks traded in other countries have collapsed, and some places have stopped trading in them. The New York Stock Exchange halted trading in three Russia-focused exchange traded funds on Friday.

Russia and Ukraine are important producers of several essential commodities, so the escalating conflict has sent prices soaring as buyers feared supply shortages. The price of crude oil gained about 18 percent this week and was trading at about $113 a barrel on Friday, while the price of wheat surged by more than 40 percent.

The markets seem to be stuck between the hammer and the anvil with higher inflation, impending rate hikes and fears of the Russia and Ukraine conflict.

The employment number for the United States was not enough to stop the selling on Friday. The government said employers added 678,000 jobs last month. The unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent.

The report comes as the Federal Reserve prepares to pull back on its economic support and raise interest rates in an effort to tame inflation. Wage growth was flat in February, which is good news for the Fed and economists who are concerned about the start of an inflationary spiral in which wage and price increases push each other higher.

There is less pressure on the Fed to raise rates because of the flat number on wage growth and the uncertainty over the Ukraine conflict. The chair of the central bank said that interest rates will rise by a quarter point later this month.

Charles Evans, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, spoke on CNBC on Friday about the approach the Fed could take moving forward. Mr. Evans said that the jobs report didn't really change anything that Powell was planning to do.

The Consumer Price Index is a closely watched inflation gauge and will be released next week. Over the year, prices jumped 7.5 percent and in the month of January, they increased by 0.6 percent.

Jeanna Smialek was involved in reporting.

Coral Murphy Marcos and Kevin Granville.