Stocks solidly lower after weak jobs report

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks were solidly lower in late-morning trading today after a report showed that U.S. job creation slowed last month.

Investors sold energy and consumer discretionary stocks as oil prices declined and investors continued to worry that the risk of the U.S. economy slipping into recession, while low, is growing.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 191 points, or 1.2 percent, to 16,221 as of 11:10 a.m. Eastern. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 27 points, or 1.4 percent, to 1,888 and the Nasdaq composite lost 107 points, or 2.4 percent, to 4,401.81.

U.S. employers added 151,000 jobs in last month, a sharp deceleration from recent months as companies shed education, transportation and temporary workers. That was below economists' forecasts of a creation of 185,000 jobs, according to data from Factset.

On the positive side, the unemployment rate fell to 4.9 percent from 5 percent, the lowest level since February 2008. Average wages jumped 2.5 percent over the past year to $25.39 an hour, evidence that the past years of job growth are helping to generate larger pay raises.

The jobs report, while less than what economists were looking for, still showed the U.S. economy is growing, albeit slowly. The report caused the dollar to strengthen against other currencies, reversing some of the last two days of declines. Investors had been betting a slowing U.S. economy might cause the Federal Reserve to stall their plans to raise interest rates.