U.S. stocks drop after solid jobs report suggests higher rates

NEW YORK - U.S. stocks fell Friday after a solid jobs report kept alive the possibility that the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates as soon as next month.

It was the seventh straight day of declines for the Dow Jones industrial average. That's the longest losing streak for the index since July 2011, when investors were worried that the United States would slip back into recession.

The Dow lost 46.37 points, or 0.3 percent, to 17,373.38. The index is now down 2.5 percent for the year, and is about 5 percent below its record close of 18,312.39, set May 19.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 5.99 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,077.57 and the Nasdaq composite fell 12.90 points, or 0.3 percent, to 5,043.54.

In bond trading, yields on two- and three-year Treasury notes rose immediately after the jobs report was published. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.17 percent from 2.23 percent a day earlier. In currency trading, the dollar fell against the euro and the yen. The euro rose to 1.096 and the dollar dropped to 124.23 yen.

The price of oil fell for the sixth trading day out of the last seven as the number of rigs operating in the U.S. rose, reinforcing expectations that a global supply glut will persist. U.S. crude fell 79 cents to close at $43.87 a barrel in New York, nearing a six-year low of $43.46 set on March 17.