US equity indexes fell this week as a deterioration in labor market data called into question big-tech valuations, prompting investors to book profits.

* The S&P 500 closed at 6,728.81 on Friday versus 6,840.20 a week ago. The Nasdaq Composite stood at 23,004.54 compared with 23,724.96 a week earlier. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at 46,987.10, versus 47,562.87 at the end of last week.

* Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported Thursday firms planned to cut 153,074 jobs in October, the largest for the month since 2003, up from 55,597 a year ago.

* The jobs data were even higher than "I had expected above 100k given announcements toward the end of October from companies like Amazon, UPS, and other tech firms," Derek Holt, head of capital market economics at Scotiabank, said. "That raises the [year-to-date] tally to about 1.1 million, which is only exceeded by crisis points like the dot.com bomb, [Great Financial Crisis], and the [COVID-19] pandemic. Hiring is also slow."

* Holt said the print also indicates the jobs data released Wednesday by Automatic Data Processing "may be subject to downward revision."

* On Friday, the University of Michigan's preliminary consumer sentiment index fell to 50.3 in November from 53.6 in October, below the 53.0 forecast in a survey compiled by Bloomberg. The reading is the lowest since June 2022, when the index reached its weakest level since at least 1978, according to a Jefferies note.

* This week has been "dominated by worries over lofty technology valuations and growing signs of economic weakness," a D.A. Davidson research note said.

* Earlier in the week, investors sold off AI-poster child Palantir Technologies (PLTR) even after the company's market-beating Q3 results, including an increase in its revenue outlook, as the focus shifted to valuations. The company's price-to-sales ratio is estimated to be 85.

* Warnings of a correction from the heads of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley also hit risk sentiment.