LONDON (ShareCast) - Wall Street slumped at the start of play today on concern that a strong December jobs report will mean interest rates staying where they are for now.

There had been hopes that the Federal Reserve would start cutting interest rates in order to stimulate the economy after a string of poor economic reports, not least from the housing market.

The Labor Department said US payrolls climbed 167,000 in December despite predictions of a fall to 100,000 from November’s figure of 132,000. The unemployment rate remained at 4.5%.

At the opening bell the Dow Jones was trading 60 points lower at 12,421 while the Nasdaq 100 was trading 20 points lower at 2,433. The S&P 500 was also down 8 to 1,410.

There was more news from the high street as electronics retail chain Best Buy and Circuit City Stores both reported like for like sales growth for December on the back of demand for flat screen TVs.

Best Buy said like for like sales rose 7% in December while revenues were up 15% to $6.6bn, while Circuit City said sales rose 4.2% last month.

Meanwhile fast food restaurant chain Wendy's International said same store sales at company-owned restaurants rose 3.1% in the fourth quarter, helped by the launch of its new Double Melt cheeseburgers.

Mobile phone maker Motorola fell after it reduced its profit and sales forecast for the fourth quarter while the New York Times said it sold its broadcast media group for $575m to a private equity group.

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