NEW YORK — “Safety” wasn’t safe Friday.
A blockbuster U.S. jobs report sent investors fleeing traditional places of comfort: dividend-paying stocks, as well as bonds and gold. The selling left major indexes slightly lower.
When nervous investors crowd into safe-haven assets, it’s known on Wall Street as a “flight to safety.” On Friday, it was a flight from safety as investors grew more confident that the economy would grow.
“The January employment report was strong across the board,” Michelle Girard, an economist at RBS Securities, wrote in a note to clients. “The data were clearly very healthy.”
Gold fell more than 2 percent. As bond prices fell, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note jumped to 1.95 percent from 1.81 percent, a large move. Yields on shorter-term Treasury securities moved even more.
High-dividend utility stocks, one of the best-performing parts of the market in the past 12 months, took a beating. The Dow Jones utility index, a collection of 15 utility companies, plunged 4 percent, its worst day since August 2011.
January’s jobs report startled investors who have become accustomed to near-zero interest rates. U.S. employers added 257,000 jobs last month, and wages jumped by the most in six years.
The government also said hiring was far stronger in November and December than previously estimated. Wages, which have been mostly stagnant since the recession, rose at the fastest pace since 2008.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 60.59 points, or 0.3 percent, to 17,824.29. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 7.05 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,055.47, and the Nasdaq composite fell 20.70 points, or 0.4 percent, to 4,744.40.
“There’s an underlying nervousness in this market built on cheap money,” said Russ Koesterich, global chief investment strategist at BlackRock.
Trading on Friday in Fed fund futures, securities that reflect investors’ views on when the Federal Reserve might change interest rates, suggested a rising likelihood that the Fed could raise interest rates as soon as June.
