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Jobs Data, Oil Prices Send Stocks Reeling

Disappointing news on new jobs and continuing high prices for oil sent investors on another selling spree.
Investors bailed out of stocks Friday in the wake of a disappointing jobs report and continuing high oil prices. The Dow industrials hit their low point for 2004, while the Nasdaq composite index plunged to a year-to-date low for the second straight session.

The Dow fell 147.70 points, or 1.5%, to 9,815.33, its lowest close since Nov. 28. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 16.73 points, or 1.6%, to 1,063.97, and the Nasdaq fell 44.74 points, or 2.5%, to 1,776.89. It was the lowest close for the S&P 500 since Dec. 10, and the lowest for the Nasdaq since Aug. 26. For the week, the Dow fell 3.2%, the S&P 500 fell 3.4%, and the Nasdaq fell 5.6%.

The InformationWeek 100 fell 7.46 points, or 2.7%, to 268.47, and was down 6.6% for the week. The Nasdaq-100 tracking stock fell 88 cents to $32.72 as more than 148.3 million shares changed hands.

Investors sold off heavily for a second straight day after payroll figures showed employers added just 32,000 jobs last month, a number low enough to generate worries that a slowing in the economy in June may have been more just a brief pause. Economists had forecast the creation of roughly 243,000 jobs for July. Oil prices that continued to hover near $44 a barrel also triggered concerns among investors that inflation and slow job growth would interrupt the economic recovery for a sustained length of time.

See the full listing of all the companies in the InformationWeek 100 and the top 5 percentage winners and losers for the last closing at informationweek.com/stocks.

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