San Francisco 49ers take Florida receiver Ricky Pearsall with the 30th pick in the NFL draft

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch got a text from star receiver Brandon Aiyuk soon after drafting Florida’s Ricky Pearsall with the 30th pick.

Aiyuk's message about his former teammate was glowing: “Fire pick. Can’t lie.”

The Niners ended the first day of the NFL draft by adding a rookie receiver in Pearsall and keeping its established stars Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel despite heavy speculation that one of them could have been moved Thursday night.

San Francisco is trying to get a long-term deal done with Aiyuk after giving Samuel one two years ago, raising the question of whether the 49ers would trade Aiyuk if they can't sign him or trade Samuel if they can and aren't willing to carry two high-priced receivers on the roster.

Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan wouldn't definitively rule out any potential trades of Aiyuk or Samuel but deemed it as unlikely, especially now that the first round of the draft is over.

“I know that we’re continuing to have positive talks with BA," Lynch said. “We are really efforting to get something done with him. We’re excited about continuing down that path with Brandon being a part of this team and Deebo is a part of this team and a big part of this team. We feel great about that group and we feel like we’ve made it better.”

Pearsall had 65 catches for 965 yards and four touchdowns last season at Florida and gives the Niners a possible option as a slot receiver. Pearsall was known for some highlight-reel catches during his time in college and now is the latest potential playmaker added to a dynamic offense that made it to the Super Bowl last season.

Pearsall began his college career at Arizona State where he was teammates with Aiyuk in 2019, leading to the happy text Aiyuk sent to Lynch and a congratulatory call to Pearsall.

“We have a really good relationship,” Pearsall said. “I just got off the phone with him before I got over here on this Zoom call, and he was just congratulating me and telling me over and over again, ‘You’re a first rounder, man. Soak it up.’ There's been a lot of work put in since we last ran routes together. I feel like I’m a totally different player since the last time we've seen each other.”

Pearsall got on the radar of many observers thanks to his one-handed catch against Charlotte last September that quickly became an internet sensation.

It was the more routine work that impressed the Niners, who stressed his ability to play inside and outside, his attention to detail on route-running, ability to block downfield and refusal to go down at first contact as big reasons why they drafted him.

“There’s not one play,” said Shanahan, who compared Pearsall to a far more talented version of himself as a a little-used wide receiver at Texas more than two decades ago.

“He’s going to go over the middle and do everything he can to catch that ball and not worry about anything else. When he’s on the sidelines he’s not taking the easy way out. He makes guys tackle him and is not looking for a place to fall. When he doesn’t have the ball, he plays just as hard.”

This was the first time the Niners had a pick in the first round since 2021 when they drafted quarterback Trey Lance third overall. San Francisco traded their first-round picks in 2022 and 2023 to move up nine spots that year to take Lance, who started only four games for the 49ers before being traded to Dallas last August.

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FILE - Florida wide receiver Ricky Pearsall (1) is tackled by South Carolina defensive back Jalon Kilgore (24) and defensive back O'Donnell Fortune (3) during the second half of an NCAA college football game on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, in Columbia, S.C. The former Florida standout is one of nearly a dozen receivers expected to be selected in the first two rounds of the draft beginning Thursday night. (AP Photo/Artie Walker Jr., File)

FILE - Florida wide receiver Ricky Pearsall (1) catches 21-yard game winning touchdown over South Carolina defensive back Nick Emmanwori (21) during the second half of an NCAA college football game on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, in Columbia, S.C. The former Florida standout is one of nearly a dozen receivers expected to be selected in the first two rounds of the draft beginning Thursday night. (AP Photo/Artie Walker Jr., File)

San Francisco 49ers take Florida receiver Ricky Pearsall with the 30th pick in the NFL draft

San Francisco 49ers take Florida receiver Ricky Pearsall with the 30th pick in the NFL draft

FILE - Florida wide receiver Ricky Pearsall runs a drill at the NFL football scouting combine, Saturday, March 2, 2024, in Indianapolis. The former Florida standout is one of nearly a dozen receivers expected to be selected in the first two rounds of the draft beginning Thursday night. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are recoiling on worries that Friday’s good news on the job market may be too good and prove to be bad for Wall Street by keeping inflation and interest rates high.

The S&P 500 was down 1.7% in morning trading and on track for its fourth losing week in the last five. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 611 points, or 1.4%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 2.2% lower.

Stocks took their cue from the bond market, where yields leaped to crank up the pressure after a report from the Labor Department said U.S. employers added many more jobs to their payrolls last month than economists expected.

Such strength in hiring is of course good news for workers looking for jobs. But it could also keep upward pressure on inflation by keeping the overall economy humming. That in turn could dissuade the Federal Reserve from delivering the cuts to interest rates that Wall Street loves. Lower rates can not only goose the economy but also boost prices for investments.

The Fed has already indicated it’s likely to ease rates fewer times this year than it earlier expected because of worries about higher inflation. That’s in part because some officials are taking seriously the possibility of tariffs and other policies coming from President-elect Donald Trump that could worsen inflation.

To be sure, economists and analysts said Friday’s jobs report may not be quite as strong as it seems on the surface. The overall number of hires during the month blew past expectations, but “manufacturing is still getting crushed," said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.

“The macroeconomy may be fine,” he said, “but each individual’s microeconomy could look very different.”

The raises that workers are getting can also be a more important data point for the Fed, and gains in average hourly earnings were below 4% last month. That’s what “the Fed wants to see,” according to Wells Fargo Investment Institute Senior Global Market Strategist Scott Wren.

The nuanced takes helped Treasury yields give back some of their initial bursts following the release of the jobs report. But preliminary results from another report later in the morning underlined the issue after suggesting U.S. consumers are getting much more pessimistic about where inflation is heading.

Consumers are expecting inflation in the year ahead to be 3.3%, up from an expectation of 2.8% last month, for the highest reading in the University of Michigan's survey since May. Expectations are worsening across the board, but particularly for households that make less in income and among political independents, according Joanne Hsu, director of the Surveys of Consumers.

The problem for Wall Street is that traders had been banking on a stream of cuts to interest rates coming from the Fed when they sent U.S. stock indexes to dozens of records last year. Fewer cuts this year than expected would likely mean stock prices either have to fall or profits at companies have to rise more strongly to make up for it.

Stocks that are seen as the most expensive can feel the most pressure from higher yields. That puts the focus on Nvidia and other Big Tech stocks whose prices have soared in the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology.

Nvidia slumped 3.7% and was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500.

Smaller companies can also feel a big hit from high interest rates because so many have to borrow to grow. The Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks slumped 2.4% for a bigger loss than other indexes.

Insurance companies were also under pressure as wildfires continue to burn in the Los Angeles area. Many of the homes that have been destroyed have been in expensive areas where the typical price is more than $3 million. Such high-price damage could eat into insurers’ profit. Allstate fell 4.2%, Chubb lost 3.6% and Travelers dropped 3.3%.

Delta Air Lines was able to rise 9.3% Friday because it delivered a stronger profit report for the last three months of 2024 than analysts expected. The airline said it’s seeing strong demand for travel, which accelerated through the end of last year, and it expects that to continue into 2025.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury initially shot to 4.78% after the release of the jobs report, up from 4.68% late Thursday, before easing back to 4.73%. In September, it was below 3.65%, marking a major move for the bond market.

The yield on the two-year Treasury, which moves more closely with expectations for near-term Fed action, climbed to 4.33% from 4.27% late Thursday. Traders see it as a near certainty that the Fed will not cut interest rates at its next meeting toward the end of this month, which would be the first time it’s done so following three straight cuts.

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People stand near an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person rides a bicycle in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

FILE - The New York Stock Exchange is shown in New York's Financial District on Dec. 31, 2024. American flags flew at half-staff there following the death of former U.S. president Jimmy Carter. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)