dow

Calm returned to the stock market Monday after a spasm of fearful selling last week. Major indexes fell modestly in morning trading.

The stock market suffered its worst day of the year Friday after a surprisingly weak report about hiring and employment cast a pall of gloom over the U.S. economy. The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 275 points.

The stock market is closing down sharply, extending its longest and deepest slump this year.

Stocks are closing sharply lower after investors delivered their verdict on disappointing job growth in March. It's only the second four-day losing streak of the year for the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500.

The Dow Jones industrial average on Tuesday finally reclaimed the ground it held before the carnage of the Great Recession -- bailouts, bank failures, layoffs by the million and a stock market panic that cut retirement savings in half.

It came and went in a flash, a number on a board for seconds at a time, but its symbolic power couldn't be dismissed.

Investors sent U.S. stocks barreling to their highest levels of the year Thursday, buoyed by slivers of encouraging news about jobs and housing. At least for a day, they overlooked the lack of clarity about Greece's marathon negotiation for a bailout.

It was just last summer that the Dow Jones industrial average shed 2,000 points in three terrifying weeks. Investors had a host of things to worry about, including the possibility of another recession.

A drop in the unemployment rate to its lowest in three years propelled the Dow Jones industrial average Friday to its highest close since before the 2008 financial crisis. The Nasdaq composite index hit an 11-year high.

Stocks are closing mostly lower on news that the U.S. grew at a slower pace than expected in the fourth quarter.