Stocks plummet on jobs report

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks skidded at the start of trading Friday as the December employment report came in much weaker than expected.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.4 percent. The Nasdaq composite index skidded 1.3 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was 0.6 percent lower.

The jobs report showed that payrolls increased by only 18,000 last month. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast the report would show that employers added only 70,000 jobs in the month, down from a revised 115,000 increase in November.

The unemployment rate jumped to 5 percent, up from 4.7 percent, which is a 17-month high. Since 18,000 new jobs is not enough job growth to keep up with increases in the labor pool, economists had forecast the unemployment rate would rise to only 4.8 percent.

Stocks to watch Friday include Dow component Boeing (BA, Fortune 500), which reported late Thursday that commercial jet orders soared 35 percent in 2007 to 1,413, supported by demand for its new 787 aircraft, which saw orders more than doubled to 369 from 157 a year earlier.

But Scott Carson, the head of Boeing's commercial aircraft until told in-house publication Boeing Frontiers that he didn't believe the company would be able to have a fourth straight year of orders above 1,000 in 2008, citing the toll higher fuel prices will take on its airline customers.

Home furnishings and housewares retailer Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY, Fortune 500) announced after the close Thursday that current quarter profit would miss Wall Street estimates and forecast sales at its stores open at least a year would be flat in the period. Shares plunged 6.6 percent in after-hours trading following the announcement.

General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) CEO Rick Wagoner said in an online chat Thursday that the company is still pushing to get its ambitious plug-in hybrid vehicle, the Volt, into production by 2010. But despite what he called "massive resources" being put into development, the company "can't guarantee that at this time," he said.

The Volt is designed to run solely on a rechargeable lithium-ion battery now in development for most trips. GM, which saw 2007 sales fall 6 percent in the face of higher fuel prices, has already started heralding the Volt in advertising campaigns, even though it is not yet available.

Also in the news Friday is Spark Networks (LOV), parent company of the popular dating site JDate.com, which has put itself up for sale, according to a report in the New York Times.