US stocks have fallen in opening trade with a soft employment report showing weaker than expected jobs growth in July.
After 10 minutes of Friday trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 59.21 (0.38 per cent) at 15,568.81.
The broad-market S&P 500 had shed 4.79 (0.28 per cent) at 1,702.08, pulling back from Thursday's record closing high.
And the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite had dropped 9.05 (0.25 per cent) to 3,666.69.
The Labor Department says the United States added 162,000 jobs in July, well below the 175,000 expected on average by analysts.
The unemployment rate fell to 7.4 per cent from 7.6 per cent in June.
"The downside of the disappointing employment report is that it shows growth isn't as strong as participants wanted to believe yesterday," said Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com.
"The upside for the stock market is that creates an opening for the Fed to maintain its asset purchase program at the current pace past September."
