U.S. stocks slide following June jobs data

 NEW YORK, July 6 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks slid on Friday after the government's latest report showed the jobs market was still struggling three years after the recession.

When the market closed, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 124.20 points, or 0.96 percent, to settle at 12,772.47, after plunging¹ as much as 193 points in earlier session.

The Standard & Poor's 500 dropped 12.90 points, or 0.94 percent, to 1,354.68, with all its 10 big-cap sectors² ending in the red. The Nasdaq Composite Index slid 38.79 points, or 1.30 percent, to 2,937.33.

Friday's slide after the Labor³ Department reported the U.S. economy added only 80,000 jobs in June, keeping the unemployment rate unchanged at 8.2 percent. The report marked the third straight month of weak hiring, an indisputable evidence that the U.S. economy was losing steam.

In the April-to-June quarter, the economy added an average of just 75,000 jobs a month, about one-third of 226,000 a month created in the first quarter, far fewer to knock down the lofty unemployment rate.

There were signs that the weak jobs market has already taken a toll⁴ on personal spending, which accounted for more than 70 percent of the country's economy.

After Friday's losses, both the blue-chip Dow and the broader S& P 500 turned negative for the week while the tech-heavy Nasdaq still managed a fifth straight weekly gain.

1 plunging   

adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降

参考例句：

• War broke out again, plunging the people into misery and suffering. 战祸复发，生灵涂炭。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He is plunging into an abyss of despair. 他陷入了绝望的深渊。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 sectors   

n.部门( sector的名词复数 )；领域；防御地区；扇形

参考例句：

• Berlin was divided into four sectors after the war. 战后柏林分成了4 个区。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Industry and agriculture are the two important sectors of the national economy. 工业和农业是国民经济的两个重要部门。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

4 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。