Stocks on Wall Street tumbled, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling well below the 10,000 level, after investors received what they feared most: a weaker-than-expected US jobs report.The May nonfarm payrolls report showed only a puny rise in priv
Stocks on Wall Street tumbled, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling well below the 10,000 level, after investors received what they feared most: a weaker-than-expected US jobs report.
The May nonfarm payrolls report showed only a puny rise in private sector jobs, quashing hope that a strong US economy could help counter the pull of negative sentiment from Europe.
The Dow plunged 323.31 points, or 3.2%, to 9931.97, with all its 30 components falling, including declines of more than 5% each in economically sensitive stocks Caterpillar and American Express.
General Electric was close behind, off 4.5%. The blue-chip average suffered its worst one-day drop since May 20 and ended the week down 2%.
The Nasdaq Composite tumbled 3.6% to 2219.17 to end down 1.7% for the week. The S&P 500-stock index dropped 3.4% to 1064.88 for a weekly decline of 2.3%.
Other markets: Europe down, Asia mixed
European shares fell in reaction to Hungary reigniting concerns about debt in Europe and the poor US jobs report.
The euro sank, with traders citing official comments on Hungary's woes and rumours of derivative problems at French bank Société Générale.
HSBC Bank caused more jitters with a research note to clients in which it downgraded Europe excluding the UK to "underweight" from "neutral."
Other banking stocks fell, particularly those based in Spain, as worries about Spanish debt and the country's real-estate market heightened.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index declined 1.8% to 244.53, wiping out the 1.4% gain of the previous session. The decline pared gains for the week to just 0.2%.
The UK’s FTSE 100 fell 1.6% to 5126.00, Germany's DAX lost 1.9% to 5938.88 and the French CAC-40 skidded 2.9% to 3455.61. All three declined for the week.
In Asia, buying interest pushed up shares in some markets ahead of crucial US jobs data, though caution was the norm.
Japan's Nikkei Stock Average closed down 0.1% at 9901.19 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.8% to 4449.36, while the Shanghai Composite index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng each closed nearly flat for the session.
On the positive side, Korea's Kospi Composite ended 0.1% higher at 1664.13, India’s Sensex was up 0.6% to 17,117.69, Singapore’s Straits Times rose 0.5% to 2806.51 and New Zealand's NZX-50 closed up 0.2% at 3030.14.
Commoditis: Oil down, gold up
Crude oil futures tumbled 4.2% on the jobs data and the euro's sharp drop against the dollar.
Light, sweet crude oil for July delivery in New York shed $US3.10 a barrel to settle at $US71.51 a barrel, just below a session low of $71.32. The percentage drop was the biggest since February 4, when it dropped 5%.
Gold rose as safe-haven buying resumed amid a steep selloff in stocks and worries about European sovereign debt.
Gold for August delivery rose $US7.70, or 0.6%, to settle at $US1217.70 an ounce in New York.
Currencies: Euro down, yen up
The euro sank to the weakest point in more than four years against the dollar.
The euro fell below $US1.20 – the 10-year average – and is on a course that could bring it to $1.18, where it exited the first day of trading when the common currency was introduced in 1999.
The commodity-linked Australian dollar shed 2.3% to 82.38USc against the greenback, while the Canadian dollar also weakened to $US1.0624.
The euro was changing hands at $US1.2018, compared with $US1.2158 late on Thursday and the intraday low of $1.1973.
The dollar weakened to ¥91.71 from ¥92.63. The euro weakened to ¥110.22 from ¥112.62.
The UK pound weakened to $US1.4497 from $US1.4616.
