US’s Stocks market experienced the sharpest declines in 2010, leaving the Dow Jones industrial average firmly below 10,000, as a disappointing monthly unemployment data cast a pall over the country’s economic recovery.
New concerns that the financial crisis in Europe may spread to Hungary added to investors’ anxiety. With the broad market losing about 3.4%, the sell-off was swift and brutal.
Both Dow Jones industrials and Standard & Poor’s index ended up 2% lower at the end of the week. All 30 of the Dow Jones industrials fell, some by more than 5%. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 323.31 points, or 3.2%, to 9,931.97. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was down 37.95 points, or 3.44%, to 1,064.88.
In the tumult, American investors sought safety in US Treasury securities. The prospect that the jobs report would be strong had tempered some of the recent volatility in the stock market which was caused by the European debt crisis.