Markets: Stocks plunge on shock US jobs report

Stocks on Wall Street plunged on a shock US jobs report, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its biggest drop in a month.

Commodities also tumbled with crude oil dropping below $US100 a barrel for the first time since February.

Payrolls in the US expanded by 115,000 in April, far short of the 168,000 consensus forecast from a Dow Jones survey.

The Dow lost 168.32 points, or 1.3%, to 13,038.27 and was down 1.3% in the four trading days in May.

However, the Dow is still up 6.7% this year, having ended largely unchanged in April.

The S&P 500 index had its biggest weekly decline since December and the Nasdaq Composite fell the most since November.

The S&P 500 was down 1.6% at 1369.10 and the Nasdaq down 2.2% at 2956.34.

In Europe, the UK's FTSE 100 fell 2.1% and Germany's DAX index lost 3.5% this week, their biggest weekly losses this year.

The Stoxx 600 fell 1.8% to 253.00, the DAX was down 2% to 6561.47 and the FTSE 100 was down 1.9% to 5655.06.

France’s CAC 40 was down 1.9% at 3161.97.

Asian markets ended lower, hit by a drop in crude oil. Korea's Kospi dropped 0.3% to1989.15, while both Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 0.8% each to 4396.00 and 21.086.00 respectively.

The Shanghai Composite Index moved in and out of positive territory before settling 0.5% higher at 2452.01. Japanese markets remained closed for a holiday.

Commodities: Oil drops
Crude oil for June delivery tumbled 3.9% to settled at $US98.49 a barrel in New York, capping the worst week since September.

Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange fell 2.5% to $US113.18 a barrel, its weakest finish since February 2.

Gold rose $US8.30 an ounce to $US1643.10.

Currencies: Yen rises
The euro and US dollar fell against the yen. The dollar was at ¥79.86 from ¥80.17 late on Thursday.

The euro was at $US1.3075 from $US1.3152 and the euro was at ¥104.89 from ¥105.43.

The dollar was at 0.9196 Swiss franc from 0.9135 franc.

The UK pound was at $US1.6147 from $US1.6178.