(menafn – ecpulse)
Although today was a calm day with a lack of data the world's leading economy saw its shares plummeting throughout the midday session ragging the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lower following its worst week of 2012, after employers added fewer jobs than forecast in March.
In fact The U.S. Department of Labor reported Friday that American payrolls increased by 120 thousand in March, after rising 240 thousand (revised from 227 thousand) - an employment figure that is too below market consensus of 205 thousand, while Unemployment in the U.S. unexpectedly fell to 8.2 percent from 8.3 percent in March.
The slowdown in hiring shocked the markets after three consecutive months of 200 thousand plus employment figures, but instead the Labor Department reported the weakest increase in payrolls in five months, fueling bets the Federal Reserve should act soon to stimulate job creation around the country.
Now Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. erased at least 1.4 percent. Caterpillar Inc. while that General Electric Co. sank more than 2 percent, pacing losses among industrial companies.
Alcoa Inc., scheduled to report earnings tomorrow, slid 0.3 percent. Only seven companies in the benchmark index advanced and AOL Inc. soared 46 percent after agreeing to sell and license patents to Microsoft Corp.
The Dollar index which measures the performance of the U.S. dollar against a basket of currencies including the Euro, the Pound, and the Yen, bounced up a little from Friday's slump to currently trade around 79.88, recording a high of 80.03 and a low of 79.79.
Equities were weighed down further as Gold rebounded to reach 1646.30 since the opening level of 1629.25. Oil futures for May 12 deliveries declined to reach 101.50 after opening at 102.49 per barrel.
As of 12:30 a.m. in New York, sectors that shed points the most leading the decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index were financials, industrials and oil & gas shares, respectively.
Accordingly, Dow Jones Industrial Average traded lower by 125.78 points or 0.96 percent around 12,934.36 levels, S&P 500 index traded at 1382.19 as it dropped by 15.89 points or 1.39 percent, while NASDAQ Composite index declined 32.94 points or 1.07 percent to trade around 3047.56 levels.
