US stocks plummet after poor jobs numbers

US stocks plummeted Friday after the release of disappointing jobs data for April, with tech giants leading the way on fears that consumer spending would weaken. News that the economy generated only 115,000 net new jobs last month, less than half the pace at the beginning of the year, sent buyers running for the doors. The data also suggested that many tens of thousands of Americans had also dropped out of the jobs market altogether, a bad sign for household incomes. At the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 168.32 points, or 1.27 percent, to 13,038.27. The S&P 500 lost 22.47 (1.61 percent) to 1,369.10, while the tech-rich Nasdaq plunged 67.96 (2.25 percent) to 2,956.34. The jobs data combined with a disappointing report Thursday on consumer spending from department stores to tip sentiment against the market. The was clear in the shares of tech stocks sensitive to consumer spending: Apple lost 2.9 percent, Microsoft 2.5 percent, Google 2.3 percent, Amazon 2.4, and Intel 2.3 percent. The fall took the Nasdaq to an overall 3.7 percent loss for the weeks, wiping out gains piled up since early March, the last time the index settled below 2,970. "People have been in sell mode for the last two days," said Michael James of Wedbush Securities, pointing to Thursday's figures showing a significant slowdown in the services sector of the economy in April. "The economic data was underwhelming yesterday and obviously the jobs report was also underwhelming today," he said. "We also had consumer stocks under a fair amount of pressure yesterday, with the retail sales number," a reference to data showing a lower-than expected reading on department store sales. The blue chips of the Dow were all in the red, Bank of America leading the fall with a 3.3 percent loss, follow by Cisco, down 3.0 percent. Yahoo, facing a hedge fund shareholder's push to force out chief executive Scott Thompson, lost 1.6 percent. Bond prices rose. The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 1.88 percent from 1.92 percent Thursday, while the 30-year was slipped to 3.07 percent from 3.11 percent. Bond prices go down as yields go up.