By Ellis Mnyandu
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Friday as data showing the economy lost more than half-a-million jobs last month heightened fears that the worst financial crisis in 80 years was deepening.
The Labor Department said the 533,000 nonfarm jobs lost marked the biggest monthly reduction since 1974. The unemployment rate climbed to 6.7 percent, the highest since 1993.
Shares of energy, technology and industrial companies led losses. Exxon Mobil
Companies' accelerating their layoffs produces a major headwind for stocks that have been trying to break out of 11-year lows. Investors feared that the job losses will cause consumers to hunker down, making the profit outlook for businesses more dire.
"This is an economy that is in absolutely free fall right now. Confidence has collapsed," said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts.
"Obviously at the moment we have the employment plunging, and with employment plunging, consumer incomes are plunging and consumer spending is plunging and we just have a very straight downward spiral."
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> slid 181.59 points, or 2.17 percent, to 8,194.65. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> dropped 19.85 points, or 2.35 percent, to 825.37. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> tumbled 33.67 points, or 2.33 percent, to 1,411.89.
Shares of Exxon Mobil fell to $75.05 on the New York Stock Exchange, as U.S. front-month crude shed 74 cents to $42.75 a barrel.
BOEING (BA.NY)
Technology shares also took a beating, with Apple, the maker of the iPod and the iPhone, leading the Nasdaq drags, with a drop of 2.5 percent to $89.15.
Investors were also on edge about the fate of the U.S. auto industry, with executives of the big three carmakers, including General Motors
GM shares were down 4 percent at $3.91 and Ford
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 Herb Lash; Editing by Kenneth Barry)
