Higher unemployment rate deflates stocks

U.S. markets opened with steep losses Friday after the Labor Department said the unemployment rate climbed from 8.1 percent to 8.2 percent in May. The department said 69,000 jobs were added, far less than the 150,000 economists had predicted. The report came a day after the Commerce Department revised its first-quarter estimate for the gross domestic product, from 2.2 percent growth to 1.9 percent. In midmorning trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average shed 196.10 points, or 1.57 percent, to 12,199.36. The Standard & Poor's 500 lost 22.44 points, or 2.71 percent, to 1,267.89. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 50.96 points, 1.8 percent, to 2,776.38. The benchmark 10-year treasury note rose 26/32 to yield 1.476 percent. The euro rose to $1.2393 from Thursday's $1.2364. Against the yen, the dollar hit 78.17 from 78.31 yen. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index dropped 1.2 percent, 102.48 points, to 8,440.25.