US stock fell yesterday capping a losing week, as selling motivated by yet more warnings of corporate earnings shortfalls and news of surprising weakness last month in the job market eroded Thursday's huge gain, the only winning day of the week.

The Dow Jones industrial average sank 126.96 points to 9,791.09, according to the latest data, while the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 64.71 points to 1,720.29. The benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 22.97 points to 1,128.42.

Stocks lost support before the opening bell when the US Labor Department reported a decline in March of 86,000 non-farm payroll jobs, the sharpest drop in nearly a decade - and a jolt from expectations that 58,000 non-farm jobs were added. The March unemployment rate rose to 4. 3 percent, matching expectations, but marking the highest jobless rate since mid-1999. In February, the jobless rate was 4.2 per cent.