US stocks slumped as the highest jobless rate since 1994 and slower-than-expected growth in service industries cast doubt on the strength of a rebound in profits. Microsoft Corp.and Intel Corp led the decline.
Eight of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index's 10 industry groups fell, driving the benchmark to a sixth losing week in seven. The NASDAQ Composite Index slid to its lowest in almost seven months.
"A lot of people thought we bottomed in revenues and earnings late last year or early this year, and now that is suspect," said Benjamin Pace, who helps manage US$24 billion at Deutsche Bank Private Banking.
The S&P 500 fell 11.13, or 1 percent, to 1,073.43. Technology stocks accounted for almost half the drop. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid for the first day in four, shedding 85.24, or 0.8 percent, to 10,006.63, as International Business Machines Corp fell to its lowest in 18 months.
The NASDAQ dropped 31.79, or 1.9 percent, to 1,613.03.
For the week, the S&P 500 slipped 0.3 percent. It has lost 6.5 percent this year. The NASDAQ fell 3.1 percent, bringing its decline for the year to 17 percent. The Dow gained 1 percent, boosted by better-than-expected sales from General Motors Corp. It's off 0.2 percent this year.
Advancing and declining stocks were about even on the New York Stock Exchange, while six fell for every five that advanced on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Some 1.28 billion shares traded on the Big Board, 3.8 percent below the three-month daily average.
The worse-than-forecast economic data helped push down consumer stocks such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc and banks including Citigroup Inc. Gold stocks jumped as the price of the metal climbed to its highest level in two years as investors sought alternatives to declining stock prices.
The unemployment rate rose in April to 6 percent from 5.7 percent in March as 43,000 nonfarm jobs were created, according to the Labor Department. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News expected 55,000 nonfarm jobs and an unemployment rate of 5.8 percent.
Separately, an industry survey showed activity at retail, financial services, construction and other non-manufacturing companies rose at a slower pace in April than in March, signaling a weaker-than-forecast recovery from recession for the largest part of the economy.
"We're still in that Never-Never Land where people are concerned about whether the economic recovery is going to keep plugging along," said Gil Knight, manager of the US$155 million Ark Small-Cap Equity Portfolio, which has returned an average of 28 percent annually over five years.
Businesses may wait another six months before they start increasing capital spending, Knight said, and until then profits may be disappointing. He has been buying shares of oilfield equipment stocks such as Grant-Prideco Inc and Tube Corp.
Computer-related and telecommunications companies, the biggest losers this year on benchmark indexes, had the steepest declines on Friday.
Microsoft dropped US$1.65 to US$49.56, US$0.15 below its Sept. 21 low.
Computer-related companies including Micron Technology Inc and Dell Computer Corp told investors at a Merrill Lynch & Co. conference this week that demand for their products was stagnant.
Intel, the biggest chipmaker, slipped US$1.31 to US$26.56. IBM was the biggest drag on the Dow, falling US$2.08 to US$81.78, the lowest since December 2000.
Oracle Corp fell for a fourth day, losing US$0.12 to US$8.43.
Analysts at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co and Goldman, Sachs & Co cut fiscal fourth-quarter profit estimates for the largest database-software maker.
WorldCom Inc plummeted US$0.24 to US$1.79 and was the most actively traded stock. The shares started the year at US$14 and fetched more than US$60 in 1999. Chief Executive Officer John Sidgmore may not be able to raise enough money through asset sales to avoid bankruptcy at the second-largest long-distance telephone company.
Among other telephone stocks, Verizon Communications Inc fell US$1.15 to US$40.35, extending its loss for the year to 15 percent.
Among the 87 percent of S&P 500 companies that have reported first-quarter profits, the average decline is 11.4 percent. For the second quarter, analysts are forecasting a 6.7 percent rise in earnings, though that number has dropped from 8.8 percent at the beginning of April.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
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