Dow plunges 274.88 on dismal jobs report
Trader Peter Mancuso works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. (May 20, 2012) Credit: AP
Alarmed by an ominously weak U.S. jobs report, investors ran for safety Friday from new worries about a global slowdown, sending the Dow Jones industrial average to its biggest loss since November. The 274.88 point dive wiped out the last of the index's gains for the year.
Across Wall Street, fearful investors snapped up safer investments such as bonds, dragging the yield on the 10-year Treasury note to a record low. Gold spiked $50 an ounce; oil fell to its lowest since October.
"The big worry now is that this economic slowdown is widening and accelerating," said Sam Stovall, chief equity strategist at S&P Capital IQ, a market research firm.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index and Nasdaq composite index both fell more than 2 percent. The Nasdaq has dropped more than 10 percent since its peak -- what traders call a market correction. And the S&P 500 is just a point above correction territory.
The Dow closed down 274.88 points, or 2.22 percent, at 12,118.57. It's off 0.8 percent for the year; two months ago it was up more than 8 percent for the year. The S&P 500 fell 2.46 percent, to 1,278.04. The Nasdaq dropped 2.82 percent to 2,747.48. Both of those indexes are still up for the year.-- AP
