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US jobs report hurts Street sentiment - UPDATE

4th May 2012, 11:10 am by Deborah Sterescu
US jobs report hurts Street sentiment - UPDATE

US equities tumbled Friday late morning after the April jobs report disappointed investors, with employers adding fewer-than-expected jobs last month.

The Dow was lately down 0.92%, while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 showed slightly bigger percentage losses.

The Labour Department reported a net gain of 115,000 jobs, far below the 165,000 consensus estimate, according to Bloomberg.

But upward revisions to February and March job numbers, along with a drop in the unemployment rate to 8.1% from 8.2%, which was anticipated to remain steady, could offset some of the disappointment.

March figures were upwardly revised to a net gain of 154,000, up from a prior reading of 120,000, while February figures were revised higher to 259,000, up from 240,000 initially.

Private payrolls rose 130,000 in April after a 166,000 increase the prior month. The consensus forecast was for a 178,000 advance.

The public sector continued to downsize with a 15,000 drop in government employment, led by a 10,700 decline in local government education.

Average hourly earnings were flat, following a 0.2 percent gain in March. Analysts expected a 0.2 percent gain.

Analysts and economists will continue to debate how much of April's sluggishness was merely the outcome of atypical warm winter months moving forward job gains.

Analysts are saying Friday's jobs report is not weak enough to justify a third quantitative easing program, but it could lead the Fed to extend the Operation Twist program.

Earlier this week, investors were hit with a weak report on private-sector hiring from payroll processor ADP on Wednesday. Thursday morning, Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that job cuts rose to 40,559 in April -- an increase of 7% from March, and 11% higher than a year ago.

Crude oil for June plummeted more than 4.3% to $98.08 per barrel Friday.

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