The Dow turned negative for the year today after a weak jobs report accelerated a downturn in stocks — fueled by fears that Europe’s spiraling debt crisis was dragging down the world economy.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 274.88 points, or 2.22 percent, to end unofficially at 12,118.57.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was down 32.29 points, or 2.46 percent, to finish unofficially at 1,278.04.
The Nasdaq Composite Index, meanwhile, was down 79.86 points, or 2.82 percent, to close unofficially at 2,747.48.
For the week, the Dow was unofficially down 2.7 percent, while the S&P 500 lost 3 percent and the Nasdaq dropped 3.2 percent.
Job growth braked sharply for a third straight month in May and the unemployment rate rose for the first time in nearly a year, raising chances of further monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve to support the sputtering recovery.
Employers added a paltry 69,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, the least since May of last year, and 49,000 fewer jobs were created in the previous two months than had been thought, the Labor Department said.
The report is especially troubling for President Obama, whose prospects of winning re-0election in November could hinge on the economy’s health.
Republican opponent Mitt Romney called the report “a harsh indictment” of Obama’s policies.
The jobless rate rose to 8.2 percent in May from 8.1 percent in April, although the increase reflected more people entering the labor force to look for work, a possible sign of growing confidence.
The data offered the clearest evidence yet that the deepening debt crisis in Europe and a slowdown in China were starting to dampen an already lackluster recovery.
With AP and Reuters