U.S. stocks fell in late morning trading on Friday as a mixed August jobs report did little to quell investor anxiety over the timing an interest rate increase.
The nonfarm payrolls report showed that fewer-than-expected jobs were added to the economy last month even as unemployment rate dropped to its lowest in more than seven years.
Nonfarm payrolls increased 173,000 last month, compared with an upwardly revised 245,000 in July and fewer than the 220,000 that economists polled by Reuters had expected.
Unemployment rate dropped to 5.1 percent and wages accelerated.
"Investors don't want to take big bets before going into the long weekend, China has been closed for two days and the jobs report just adds to the uncertainty on what the Fed is going to do," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities.
