Day of Swings Puts Dow Below 10,000 at Close

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) lost around 324 points on the day to close below 10,000, marking one of the worst daily declines all year. The fall escalated on disappointing jobs data published this morning by the Department of Labor (DOL). Total non-farm payrolls grew by 431,000 in May as the 2010 Census added 411,000 temporary employees, according to the DOL. The figures fell short of economist expectations. Private-sector employment grew by more than 41,000 in May, below analyst projections of 55,000. The DJIA, which closed yesterday at 10,258, fell to 10,046 shortly after the publication of weak private-sector hiring data, according to MarketWatch.

The Dow dipped below 10,000 during the day (see above) before recovering some ground and ultimately closing just under 9,932:

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is working with national securities exchanges and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) by filing proposed rules which will pause trading in certain individual stocks, by using what it calls “circuit breakers,” if the price moves 10% or more in a five-minute period. On May 6th, mortgage finance stocks took a beating as the exchanges swung wildly, dipping nearly 1,000 points before clawing back some ground. “We continue to believe that the market disruption of May 6th was exacerbated by disparate trading rules and conventions across the exchanges,” SEC chair Mary Schapiro said in a statement. “As such, I believe it is important that all the exchanges quickly reached consensus on a set of uniform circuit breakers that would be triggered when needed.” Write to Diana Golobay. Disclosure: the author holds no relevant investments. Additional reporting by Jacob Gaffney.

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