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September 2, 2011 in Business, Nation/World
Stocks plunge after U.S. hiring dries up in August
Stocks tumbled today on news that the U.S. economy added no new jobs last month.
The jobs report was the weakest in almost a year. It renewed fears that the U.S. might slip back into recession. Treasury yields fell and gold rose as investors piled into investments seen as less risky than stocks.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 172 points, or 1.5 percent, to 11,321 at 11:20 a.m. Eastern. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 20, or 1.6 percent, to 1,182. The Nasdaq composite index slipped 39, or 1.6 percent, to 2,507.
All 30 stocks in the Dow fell. Only one, Verizon Communications Inc., turned positive briefly.
The losses wiped out most of this week’s gains, leaving the Dow up just 0.3 percent. Stock indexes rose last week for the first time in five weeks.
Volume was thin ahead of the holiday weekend. Shares dropped Thursday, breaking a four-day rally. Analysts said many traders had sold shares before taking off a day early.
If more people were at work, today’s sell-off would have been steeper, said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank. “Investors are spending more time thinking about beach balls and barbeques than they are about the lousy economic data,” he said.
The weakness of the Labor Department’s closely watched jobs report surprised investors. The unemployment rate remained stuck at 9.1 percent. It has been above 9 percent in all but two months since May 2009.
© Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Dirt: Kalispels to open second Fatburger 
idahocity on September 02 at 10:13 a.m.
anyone really surprised? i still think we have yet to reach the bottom of this bankster/finacier engineered crash/consolidation of the world.
zelda on September 02 at 10:33 a.m.
For the life of me, I can’t see how any large U.S. corporation would want to hire people. This is end-stage capitalism with as much labor as possible offshored, outsourced or automated. And still they whine about taxes while not paying any. What could be better than zero taxes? (GE, I’m talking to you, among others.)
Small to medium business still want or need employees, but the truth is that the large corporations are the ones that make the major campaign contributions. They’re bought the legislators to write the laws in their favor. I don’t see how the jobs situation can possibly turn around as long as corporations continue to view employees as a corrosive expense and liability.
Chinese factory workers are pretty much slave laborers, so in this economic civil war, it can be said that the vision of “The South shall rise again” has been realized.
pjc on September 02 at 11:14 a.m.
Recovery summer 2!
- Joe Biden
RedCedar on September 02 at 11:50 a.m.
Once i built a railroad, made it run
Made it race against time
Once i built a railroad, now it’s done
Brother can you spare a dime?
Once i built a tower to the sun
Brick and rivet and lime
Once i built a tower, now it’s done
Brother can you spare a dime?
greyhound2 on September 02 at 12:04 p.m.
Nobody cares if the 80% of the population which owns only 15% of the wealth (Pew report) is unemployed or losing their homes to foreclosure, but let the playground for the rich and pension fund managers on Wall Street drop 2% and they all come unglued.
There is no way that an American worker can compete with a 50 cent per hour Chinese worker, it is just not in the cards when they are allowed to import here duty free. There is no, and won’t be, any recovery as there is no demand. Have fun with your warehouse full of 50 cent tennis shoes! Wear a new pair every day, and it will take you 3,000 years to use them all up. Oh wait, they are not 50 cents but $50 dollars each retail, and Wall Street stockholders pocket the difference.
empyrius on September 02 at 12:44 p.m.
You see
In the age to come we will not be tripping about money anymore; there will be no need of passing dollars or plastifc cards to one another as a means of survival.
All I need from you brother is to pass me the scythe b/c it is about harvesting time, we can have two scythes made and you can join me in the field iffin ya want …; either way after all are fed, the fat has been tendered unto the Lord that is, then we can prepare for next year’s sowing. You can help iffin ya want . . .
No middlemen. No investors. No speculators. Nobody making money off other peoples’ money!
Just a people treating the world as our bride and each other more precious than even our own mother.
No money required thank you.
Yep.
Peace
misjustice on September 02 at 1:59 p.m.
“Get your sticky fingers offffff my chhhaise louuunge!”
RedCedar on September 02 at 3:31 p.m.
Well put, empyrius, but something funny happened on the way to the Age of Aquarius. All those long-haired peace and love harmony and understanding dudes cut their hair, bought wing-tip shoes and suspenders, traded their pot for cocaine and went to work in the corporate office towers and on Wall Street. Back around 1990 or so, if you’d try talking to any of those guys and gals about the social ideals they used to hold, they’d laugh in your face and tell you they outgrew that garbage.
It’s a bunch of spoiled brats that run the country these days, not only in politics, but in business and in the voting booth. When hard times come, as they must eventually, there will be such a wailing and gnashing of teeth as has never been heard before, even during the worst wars, famines, and plagues of history. It’s bad enough now when the cable TV is out for days due to bad weather. Wait until tens of millions of Americans who were raised by their proud and doting WWII-era parents and grandparents and taught “self esteem” in grade school find out that their retirement savings are worthless, and their government is powerless to care for them in the manner to which they’ve become accustomed, no matter if they vote Tea Party or Communist.
jddavis on September 02 at 7:09 p.m.
Haven’t you guys heard? Obama is giving a speech next week and all this high unemployment / no jobs mess will be straightened out. Give it a week, week-and-a-half tops and Obama will have this all fixed up.
You want jobs? OBAMA HAS ‘EM!
DickAdams on September 02 at 8:57 p.m.
I want one of them there old green jobs that Obama may come out with next week attempting to jump start the US employment numbers. Don`t forget he is trying to live up to his promise regarding the 8% unemployment he talked about as he was directing where to spend the taxpayer stimulus money. If you believe anything that may come out of his mouth, put a tooth under your pillow tonight.
misjustice on September 02 at 9:50 p.m.
“Get your sticky fingers offffff my chhhaise louuunge!”
“F this jobs s _ _ _, I’m going to Asspen!”
“You simply reek of public education.”
“I was so embarrassed for her. I mean, who serves kale in 2011?”
“Do NOT speak that way to me in front of the help.”
“I really identify with Don Draper.”