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April 09, 2012 at 09:01 AM
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks pulled back sharply as Wall Street got its first chance to react to a slowdown in hiring in the United States in March.
See also: U.S. Hiring Stalls Over Economic Uncertainty
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 134 points to 12,927 as of 10:50 a.m. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was off 16 at 1,382, and the Nasdaq composite lost 29 points to 3,051.
The losses were broad. All 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 fell, led by financial stocks. Bank of America was off 3 percent, Citigroup 2.5 percent.
The U.S. added just 120,000 jobs in March, about half the pace from December through February. The slowdown interrupted the strongest stretch of job growth since the Great Recession. The government released its jobs report on Friday, but the stock market was closed.
The stock market had already started to pull back from its strongest first quarter since 1998. The Dow closed as high as 13,264 earlier last week, then lost more than 200 points in three days.
Even before the job number came out, investors were worried that the Federal Reserve does not appear inclined to take further steps to stimulate the economy.
“I believe the Fed is not going to waste any ammunition unless it sees further weakness,” said Rex Macey, chief investment officer at Wilmington Trust Investment Advisers.
