Wall Street Laid Low by Jobs Data

Updated from 10:46 a.m. EST

Stocks in New York continued to trade with losses midday Friday after the U.S. government reported the final jobless data for 2008 -- the worst year for unemployment in more than 60 years -- and the president elect reiterated the critical need for an economic stimulus effort.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was losing 100 points at 8642, and the S&P 500 was off by 14 points at 895. The Nasdaq was down 31 points at 1585.

Chevron (CVX Quote) warned late Thursday that its fourth-quarter earnings will suffer the detriment of huge declines in crude prices at the end of 2008. It was Alcoa (AA Quote), which said earlier in the week that it will do away with 15,000 full-time positions and cut output to deal with the pesky economy. Both stocks were trading lower Friday.

Alcoa isn't the only one divesting its ranks. The U.S. lost 524,000 jobs in December, in line with estimates, according to data from the Labor Department on Friday. The figure was considerably better than a forecast released by ADP Employment Service earlier in the week had suggested it might be.

The unemployment rate, however, was worse than expected, rising to 7.2%. For all of 2008, the economy lost a net total of 2.6 million jobs, the most since 1945.

The release of the data "reminds us that the economy is facing major headwinds as we start the New Year," says Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at RDM Financial Group, in an email. Moreover, he says, news on the labor front is likely to continue getting worse before it gets better.