Jobs, Earnings Spur Losses

Stocks fell today as investors absorbed a slate of poor earnings reports and glum but not awful economic reports. Crude rose $1.02 a barrel, and shares in every sector other than energy fell, MarketWatch reports. The Dow dropped 51.70 to 11,326.32, the Nasdaq shed 14.59 to close at 2,310.96, and the S&P 500 fell 7.07 to 1,260.31.

The Labor Department’s announcement that the economy lost 51,000 jobs in July was initially no cause for alarm because the drop was smaller than expected. But investor confidence soured as Q2 earnings reports came in. GM posted staggering losses, sparking a 6% drop in its share price, and Ford and Toyota didn’t fare much better. Sun Microsystems dropped more than 12% on a weak forecast and drop in net income.

• For the week, the Dow was down 0.4%, the Nasdaq up 0.2%, and the S&P 500 flat.

(More Dow Jones stories.)