US stocks plummet on Fed rate worries after jobs report

Wall Street stocks finished sharply lower Friday after a strong US jobs report raised expectations that the Federal Reserve will soon lift interest rates.
At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 17,856.85, down 278.87 points (1.54 percent).
The broad-based S&P 500 fell 29.77 (1.42 percent) to 2,071.27, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 55.44 (1.11 percent) at 4,927.37.
The Labor Department said the US economy added 295,000 jobs in February, pushing the unemployment rate down two tenths to 5.5 percent, the lowest level since May 2008.
Analysts said the latest job figures, which followed a string of good jobs reports, boosted the chance the Fed will hike near-zero interest rates as early as June.
"You've got a market that's manifesting a concern about interest rates going higher in the near term," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities.