Wall Street opens lower with weak jobs data

NEW YORK (AA) – Wall Street opened lower Friday as the number of jobs added in May came much below expectations.

The Dow Jones fell 66 points to begin the day at 17,772 points. The S&P 500 decreased 5 points to open at 2,100, while the Nasdaq was down 16 points to start at 4,955.

Nonfarm payrolls in May only increased by 38,000 -- the lowest level since September 2010. The market expectation was for the economy to add 160,000 new jobs.

However, unemployment rate surprisingly fell to 4.7 percent in May, from 5 percent the previous month, and recorded its lowest level in the last nine and a half years.

Meanwhile, oil prices were down 0.5 percent when the stock market opened Friday.

The American benchmark West Texas Intermediate traded at $48.91 per barrel, and the international benchmark Brent was at $49.77 a barrel.

On Thursday, Wall Street closed higher while S&P 500 finished above 2,100 points for the first time since April, and reached its highest level in the last seven months.