Kate Gibson
MarketWatch
August 5, 2011
U.S. stocks fell Friday, with better-than-anticipated news on the beleaguered labor front offering only brief relief after one of the Wall Street’s ugliest routs in years.
The Labor Department said U.S. nonfarm payrolls climbed by 117,000 in July after an upwardly revised 46,000 addition in June.
But opening cheer from the better-than-expected report proved short-lived.
“Investors were relieved that the employment report wasn’t worst than expected, but today’s numbers aren’t a reason to celebrate either,” said Kevin Giddis, a fixed-income analyst at Morgan Keegan.
Erasing a 171-point gain, the Dow Jones Industrial Average /quotes/zigman/627449/delayed DJIA -1.55% was lately off 116.82 points at 11,266.86. On Thursday, the blue-chip index fell 513 points, its biggest daily point decline since December 2008.
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