Bad day for Uncle Dow

Wall Street had its steepest decline in more than two months on Thursday as more signs of weakness in the labour market and increasingly sluggish growth overseas fuelled doubts about the ability of the US economy to stage an early recovery.

The sour mood was set early in the session, after weekly government data showed an unexpected jump in the number of filings for jobless benefits, while a report by ADP Employer Services showed private employers cut 33,000 jobs in August.

The data fueled investor nervousness ahead of the government’s key August non-farm payrolls report, and losses cascaded in afternoon trading. The Dow fell more than 340 points and only one of its 30 components escaped the sell-off.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 344.65 points, or 2.99 per cent, to 11,188.23, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped 38.15 points, or 2.99 per cent, to 1,236.83. The Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 74.69 points, or 3.20 per cent, to 2,259.04.

It was the biggest one-day percentage drop for the three major indexes since June 26.

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