NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks tumbled Thursday after a dismal report on the job market renewed fears of another recession.
No new jobs were created in the U.S. last month, the government said early Friday. It was the worst report in 11 months. The unemployment rate held steady at 9.1 percent. It has been above 9 percent in all but two months since May 2009.
“It’s certainly ugly,” said Jeff Kleintop, chief market strategist at LPL Financial. Kleintop said the report didn’t change his view that the economy was headed for a stretch of weak economic growth, not a recession.
Treasury yields fell and gold rose as cash flowed into investments seen as less risky than stocks. Overseas markets followed U.S. stocks lower. They were already lower on reports that talks between Greece and international lenders over that country’s debt crisis were breaking down.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 248 points, or 2.2 percent, at 11,245 at 2:15 p.m. EST. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 30, or 2.5 percent, to 1,173. The Nasdaq composite index fell 66, or 2.6 percent, to 2,479.
AT&T Inc. was the only stock in Dow that didn’t fall.
The losses wiped out most of this week’s gains. The Dow was flat for the week and the S&P 500 was up just 0.2 percent. Stock indexes rose last week for the first time in five weeks.
Volume was thin ahead of the holiday weekend. Stocks fell Thursday, breaking a four-day rally.
The weakness of the Labor Department’s closely watched jobs report surprised investors. Previously reported job addition figures for June and July were also revised lower. The average work week declined and hourly earnings fell.
Kleintop said the jobs report was likely skewed by unusual events that may have made employers reluctant to add jobs. The Labor Department’s report relies on data collected from surveys of households and businesses in the second week of August. That’s right after Standard & Poor’s removed the country’s AAA credit rating and fears mounted that Europe’s banking crisis could spread to the U.S. Television screens were filled with images of riots in London.
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