By Ellis Mnyandu
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks headed for a slide at Friday's open after government data showed the economy lost a far greater number of jobs last month than expected, signaling the worst financial crisis in 80 years was deepening.
The 533,000 nonfarm jobs the Labor Department said were lost was the biggest job reduction since 1974. The unemployment rate climbed to 6.7 percent, the highest since 1993.
"This will be a real test to see how much bad news is priced into the markets," said Jeff Kleintop, chief market strategist at LPL Financial in Boston.
S&P 500 futures fell 16 points and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 122 points and Nasdaq 100 futures skidded 18.50 points.
The shaky labor market is a major headwind for stocks that have been trying to break out of 11-year lows.
As investors' appetite for risk fell, selling across the board loomed. Financial services and energy companies were likely to be targets.
Investors were also on edge about the fate of the U.S. auto industry, with executives of the big three carmakers, including General Motors
According to a Reuters poll of economists, payrolls were expected to fall by 340,000 and the unemployment rate to rise to 6.8 percent.
(Additional reporting by Ryan Vlastelica)
