US stocks dropped the most since the start of the year on Friday after crude oil surged to a record high and the unemployment rate climbed by the most in two decades...
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged nearly 400 points after crude oil climbed more than 10 dollars to close at 138.54 dollars per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil had hit 139 dollars per barrel earlier in the day.
The jobless rate rose to 5.5 per cent in May from 5.0 per cent a month earlier as the US shed jobs for the fifth straight month, the Labour Department said, raising fears that the world's largest economy has entered a recession.
A total of 324,000 jobs have now been lost since the beginning of the year - 49,000 in the month of May alone.
The blue-chip Dow plunged 394.64 points, or 3.13 per cent, to 12,209.81. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 dropped 43.37 points, or 3.09 per cent, to 1,360.68. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell 75.38 points, or 2.96 per cent, to 2,474.56.
The US currency fell against the euro to 63.39 euro cents from 64.17 euro cents on Thursday and dropped against the Japanese currency to 104 yen from 105.95 yen.
Gold climbed 23.50 dollars to 899 dollars per fine ounce.