US stocks fall amid worries over banking industry

Wall Street stocks fell early Friday as banking shares were under stress due to upheaval at regional lender SVB, while US employment data again topped expectations.

Citigroup, Wells Fargo and other large US banks were down more than two percent, extending a selloff among European banks on fears that the travails of Silicon Valley Bank may be a harbinger of more widespread problems in the sector Shares in SVB itself were halted early Friday after it fell sharply in pre-market trading.

About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.3 percent at 32,162.12.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.8 percent to 3,888.13, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.3 percent to 11,195.06 Analysts were also digesting jobs data, which showed that the US economy added 311,000 jobs last month, more than expected, although the jobless rate rose slightly to 3.6 percent.

The report is viewed as a key predictor of whether the Federal Reserve will undertake a bigger or smaller interest rate increase later this month.

"The key takeaway from the report is that it was still a strong report for this point in the Fed's tightening cycle," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare, adding that the larger half-point interest rate hike remains "on the table" for the upcoming Fed meeting