THE FTSE 100 Index closed in the red for a second straight session yesterday after a mixed report on the US jobs market.

Closely-watched government data showed the US unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in almost two years last month, but fewer jobs were created than expected.

London’s FTSE closed 35.2 points lower at 5984.3 as investor caution surrounding the US jobs data prompted a bout of profit taking.

The US jobs figures – a key indicator of the health of the US’s economy – showed the unemployment rate falling to 9.4 per cent, while a net total of 103,000 jobs were created last month, which was less than the 150,000 pencilled in.

Wall Street’s Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 40 points following the report, while Federal Reserve boss Ben Bernanke also said in a statement to the Senate Budget Committee that it will take years for jobs to come back.

The US jobs news knocked the strength of the dollar, while the pound enjoyed gains against most major currencies.

Among London stocks trading lower, miners retreated with silver specialist Vedanta Resources down 46p to 2448p.

Arm Holdings, which was the previous day’s big riser after Microsoft said it would run the latest version of its Windows software on Arm’s microchips, gave back some of the gains to stand 22.4p lower at 459.6p, a drop of five per cent.

One of the bright spots came from the retail sector after sportswear chain JD Sports Fashion maintained its recent run of forecast-beating updates.

Despite the disruption caused by the snow in December, JD said like-forlike sales at its UK stores were up 2.5 per cent in the last five weeks of 2010.

Shares rose three per cent or 29.5p to 895p.