A surprising surge in job creation and wages sent stock and Treasury prices falling Friday as investors saw their hopes for an interest rate cut dwindle. The markets shuddered at the Labor Department's report that U.S. employers increased their payrolls by 167,000 in December and boosted workers' hourly wages by 0.5 percent. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, held steady at a historically low 4.5 percent. The report suggests Americans won't be suffering from a slowing economy as much as investors anticipated _ news that would normally be positive for stocks, but not if the U.S. Federal Reserve uses it as a reason to hike interest rates. A rise in rates could crimp consumer spending, and further weaken the housing market by making mortgages pricier. The jobs report followed a disappointing report by Motorola Inc., which warned Friday that a shortfall in its cell-phone devices will eat into fourth-quarter sales and earnings estimates. Strong December sales figures from the nation's two biggest consumer electronics retailers, Best Buy and Circuit City, failed to give Wall Street a big enough boost to offset the jobs report and Motorola's news. In midmorning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 44.86, or 0.36 percent, to 12,435.83. Broader stock indicators also fell. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 4.83, or 0.34 percent, at 1,413.51, and the Nasdaq composite index was down 14.03, or 0.57 percent, at 2,439.40.
