Weekend markets: Shares slump longest worst in seven years

Stocks on Wall Street tumbled for a fifth straight week, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to the longest decline since July 2004.

The blue-chip index recorded the worst week since last August, as investors were hit by a broadside of bad news on the economy.

Nonfarm payrolls rose 54,000 in May, well short of 160,000 increase that economists had forecast and pointing to a dramatic slowdown in hiring by US companies. The jobless rate rose to 9.1% in May from 9.0% in April.

The Dow industrials fell 97.29 points, or 0.8%, to 12,151.26 down 2.3% for the week.

The S&P 500 index shed 1%, to 1300.16, with energy the only sector to rise. The technology-oriented Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.5% to 2732.78, down for a third week in a row.

Other markets: Europe, Asia fall
The Stoxx Europe 600 index closed down 0.4% at 273.67, weighed by losses in several heavyweight Nordic stocks. That left it with a loss of 1.9% for the week and its fifth consecutive weekly loss – the longest such streak in nearly three years.

But major national markets posted small gains. The UK's FTSE 100 added 0.1% to 5855.01, Germany's DAX rose 0.5% to 7109.03 and France's CAC 40 was fractionally higher at 3890.68.

Asian stocks ended mostly lower, with Japanese tech firms and Hong Kong-listed banks among decliners.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average gave up modest early gains to end the day down 0.7% at 9492.21.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 1.3% for the day and 0.7% for the week to 22,949.56, while the Shanghai Composite rose 0.8% to 2728.02, giving it a 0.7% gain for the week, its first in three weeks.

Commodities: Oil stays above $US100
Crude-oil futures ended slightly lower but remained above $US100 a barrel as weakness in the dollar offset early losses on disappointing US jobs data. Prices had sunk as low as $US98.12 a barrel earlier in the day.

Gold prices pushed higher on the weak employment data and renewed fears of a "double dip" recession in the US.

The most actively traded contract, for August delivery, settled up $US9.70, or 0.6%, at $US1542.40 an ounce in New York.

June-delivery gold gained $US9.70, or 0.6%, to settle at $US1541.70 an ounce.

Currencies: Euro jumps on Greece package
The euro rose on heightened expectations for a Greek financing package, while a grim US jobs figures pushed the dollar down.

The euro jumped to the highest point in four weeks against the dollar after reports indicated Greece was likely to receive its next tranche of financing and will likely get fresh loans, too.

The move could lift the euro into a new trading range of $1.46 to $1.49. It traded at $US1.4634 from $US1.4491 late on Thursday and moved to ¥117.43 from ¥117.25.

The dollar sank to ¥80.24, after touching ¥80.03, from ¥80.91, and also weakened to 0.8353 Swiss franc, after hitting 0.8331 franc, from 0.8427 franc.

The UK pound strengthened to $US1.6428 from $US1.6368.