US stocks fell in choppy trading yesterday, with the Nasdaq tumbling more than 2%, as mixed jobs data, uncertainty around the Omicron coronavirus variant, and the path of the Federal Reserve's policy tightening weighed.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 60 points to 34,580, the S&P 500 was down 42 points to 4,535. And the Nasdaq Composite was down 319 points to 15,062.

The S&P 500 technology index slid nearly 2%, leading losses among the 11 major sectors. Shares of Apple, Meta Platforms, Google-owner Alphabet, Amazon.com, Microsoft Corp, Nvidia Corp, and Tesla Inc fell between 1.4% and 6.1% to weigh the most on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

Wall Street opened higher after the Labor Department's report showed nonfarm payrolls increased less than expected in November, but the unemployment rate dropped to 4.2%, the lowest since February 2020, and wages increased further.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said earlier this week that the US central bank will consider at its upcoming meeting a faster wind-down to its bond-buying program to tackle surging price pressures, a move widely seen as opening the door to earlier interest rate hikes.

Separately, a measure of US services industry activity hit a fresh record high in November as businesses boosted hiring.