U.S. stocks finished lower on Friday, as investors dealt with a weak June jobs report that showed hiring slowed to a near-standstill last month. In world markets, European stocks finished lower, with the declines led by the CAC 40 in France falling 1.5 percent. Asian stocks finished higher, led by the Hang Seng in Hong Kong rising 0.9 percent. In U.S. economic news, the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent in June, the Labor Department reported. The economy generated only 18,000 net jobs in June and the number of jobs added in May was revised down to 25,000. Meanwhile, the U.S. Commerce Department said May wholesale inventories rose 1.8 percent, better than the 0.9 percent that economists had expected. The U.S. dollar fell versus the euro and versus the yen. Light sweet crude oil for August delivery fell $2.47 to $96.20 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures rose $11 to $1,541.60 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 62.29, or 0.5 percent, to 12,657.20. Twenty-three of the 30 Dow members ended the session lower, with Bank of America and General Electric posting the biggest losses on the index. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 9.42, or 0.7 percent, to 1,343.80. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 12.85, or 0.5 percent, to 2,859.81.
