| Stocks Stumble on Unemployment and Jobs Data |
| May-04-2012 |
| Keywords: stocks, down, unmeployment 8.1, 115,000, non-farm payrolls, crude oil, treasury, prices, yields, 1.9 |
Wall Street investors flocking for the safety of U.S. debt on news of weaker than expected job growth and eroding labor force numbers. Entry Text: Today's news on job growth and the unemployment rate nowhere near what Wall Street analysts were expecting, resulting in heaving losses in all three major U.S. stock indexes.
Investors today balking at news non-farm payrolls in April rose a meager 115,000, well below estimates looking for job growth of more than 160,000. The silver lining, reports for March and February were revised higher, showing the economy grew an additional 53,000 jobs during the two-month time period.
That news however not enough to out weigh a surprise decline in the unemployment rate, which hit a more than three-year low of 8.1% only after 342,000 Americans dropped out of the labor force. As it stands now, the labor participation rate sits at 63.6%, the lowest it's been since 1981.
Stocks on Wall Street feeling the weight of investor reaction to those headlines. All three major U.S. stock indexes falling more than 1%. The Nasdaq Composite falling even further, down about 2%. Losses in Apple are weighing on the tech-heavy index.
Losses on the Dow Jones Industrial average accelerating in afternoon trading. Alcoa, Bank of America, Caterpillar, Cisco, Chevron, Intel and JP Morgan Chase all trading 2% lower.
Investors today seeking shelter in the relative safety of U.S. debt. Higher demand for U.S. debt briefly driving the yield on the government's benchmarks 10-year Treasury note to a three-month low, under 1.9%.
And crude oil prices eroding in the wake of today's jobs and unemployment reports. Crude oil prices today feeling the pressure of investor angst, tumbling more than 4.5%. The June Crude Oil Contract fell nearly $5, settling at the lowest level in nearly three-months - under $98.50 a barrel. |
|
|
Posted by Lou Dobbs Staff at 2:00 PM Email to a friend |
| < Back to Today's Issues |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
