US equities slide in wake of jobs data Monday 21:00 GMT.US equities suffered a late afternoon sell-off as investors continued to get to grips with the implications of last week's disappointing non-farm payrolls report and began to turn their gaze on the fourth-quarter corporate earnings season. After lacking a clear trend during the morning, the S&P 500 equity index fell sharply and closed 1.3 per cent lower - its biggest one-day drop for two months. The decline left the S&P about 1.6 per cent below the record closing high it set at the end of 2013. Across the Atlantic, however, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 ended 0.3 per cent higher. Japanese markets were closed for a holiday. The CBOE Vix index of implied US equity volatility - known as Wall Street's "fear gauge" - reversed an early dip to finish more than 11 per cent higher. "Portfolio hedgers are clearly having a rethink about the odds of a correction as the market finds fewer fundamental reasons to look above recent all-time highs," said Andrew Wilkinson, chief market analyst at Interactive Brokers. Wall Street's weakness came as US government bond yields continued to fall in the wake of Friday's jobs report, which showed pace of job creation slowing to its lowest level for three years last month. The data triggered speculation that the Federal Reserve might be less likely to speed up the rate at which it scales back, or "tapers," its monthly asset purchases. Some in the markets attributed the weak report to adverse weather conditions, although there appeared to be some scepticism towards this argument. "The fact that 10-year Treasury yields fell as much as 10 basis points by Friday's close suggests that the market did not give much credence to the view that the unusually cold weather in December might have been responsible and therefore the weakness in job growth would be temporary," said David Woo, FX and rates strategist at BofA-Merrill Lynch. But he added: "With a string of better-than-expected data lately suggesting that the US economy was gaining momentum at the end of 2013, we are inclined to treat the December job report as a head fake." Nevertheless, the 10-year Treasury yield was down another 4 basis points on Monday to 2.82 per cent. The renewed dip in yields helped unsettle the dollar, most notably against the yen. The US currency was down more than 1 per cent and below Y103 at levels not seen for three weeks. But Chris Turner, head of FX strategy at ING, said he expected the dollar to have a strong year against the yen. "Unlike the Fed, the Bank of Japan has no plans to slow its bond-buying scheme, which is running at a Y50tn annual pace," he said. The BoJ expects demand to pick up and then decline around the April consumption tax hike - which could push consumer price inflation above 3 per cent year-on-year. Japan's trade deficit remains near its historical wides and even Japan's current account - which has typically been buoyed by investment income - has started to run a small deficit. Gold, which often gets a lift from dollar weakness, was up $7 at $1,254 an ounce, its highest in a month. Meanwhile, the next few days will bring financial sector results from the likes of JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, and Intel and General Electric from the wider corporate spectrum. The traditional kick-off to the quarterly earnings season last week from Alcoa proved disappointing, as the aluminium producer's profits fell short of expectations. But Adam Parker, chief US equity strategist at Morgan Stanley, said a high level of negative company guidance has led to sharp downward revisions to fourth-quarter earnings expectations. "Given the lower expectations, we see modest upside to earnings results," Mr Parker said. As an early indication, companies reporting prior to Alcoa have surpassed both revenue and earnings estimates by 0.5 per cent and 6.1 per cent respectively, and there's been a dearth of negative pre-releases during the first two weeks of the year. In the industrial commodities arena, nickel was in focus as the price of the metal reached a two-week high as a ban on unprocessed ore exports by Indonesia came into effect. Three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange hit $14,216 a tonne. Elsewhere, Brent crude settled 50 cents lower at $106.75 a barrel.