Dow Jones plunges on shock payroll data

The Dow Jones fell by as much as 200 points whilst gold rose above the $700 on surprise data showing that the US economy shed jobs for the first time in four years in August.

The US economy shed jobs last month for the first time in four years, statistics out today revealed. According to Labour Department figures, non-farm payrolls were down 4,000, nothing like the 115,000 increase predicted by Wall Street economists.

The data renewed concerns that the US could slide into recession and galvanised expectations of an interest rate cut later this month.

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