US stock markets sank in opening trade Friday after a fresh batch of dismal employment data was released.
A half hour into trade the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 122.72 points (0.95 percent) to 12,773.95.
The S&P 500 lost 12.75 (0.93 percent) to 1,354.83, while the tech-rich Nasdaq dropped 32.77 points (1.10 percent) to 2,943.35.
The Labor Department said the economy generated only a net 80,000 new jobs in June, leaving the unemployment rate at 8.2 percent.
That put the average for the second quarter at 75,000 jobs per month, a bad sign for US growth and consumer spending.
“At this pace, job creation is not fast enough to lower the unemployment rate with the labor force growing at close to 150,000 per month on average,” said John Ryding and Conrad DeQuadros at RDQ Economics.
The news came on the heels of International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde saying that the fund would be cutting its global growth forecasts later this month.
Growth-sensitive stocks tumbled: Alcoa fell 3.3 percent, Caterpillar 2.7 percent, and Hewlett-Packard 2.7 percent.
On the Nasdaq, Apple lost 0.8 percent, Facebook was up 0.4 percent, Google gave up 1.0 percent and Amazon slipped 0.2 percent.
Bond prices surged. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.55 percent from 1.60 percent Thursday, while the 30-year yield moved to 2.67 percent from 2.72 percent.
Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Jobs data sends US stocks tumbling
