Wall Street questions whether the job market has slowed by enough or too much

U.S. stocks are wobbling Friday as Wall Street questions whether the U.S. job market has slowed by just enough to get the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates to help the economy, or by so much that a downturn may be on the way.

After jumping to an early gain, the S&P 500 erased it and fell 0.4% below the all-time high it set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 203 points, or 0.4%, as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time, after swinging between a gain of 148 points and a loss of 409. The Nasdaq composite slipped 0.1%.

The action was more decisive in the bond market, where Treasury yields tumbled after a report from the U.S. Labor Department said employers across the country hired fewer workers in August than economists expected. The U.S. government also said that earlier est