Stocks ended in negative territory Friday, capping a dismal week on Wall Street that included record unemployment figures.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 361 points, or 1.7 percent on Friday, while the S&P 500 fell 38 points, or 1.5 percent. Since last Friday’s close, the Dow is down 6.6 percent, with the S&P falling 5.4 percent.
The declines follow the worst first quarter on record for markets, which lost roughly a quarter of their value in the first three months of the year.
Initial unemployment claims in the past two weeks have amounted to nearly 10 million, and Labor Department data on Friday showed employers slashed 701,000 jobs from payrolls while the unemployment rate jumped from 3.5 percent to 4.4 percent.
But with much of last month’s data collected before social distancing measures were put in place, economists are predicting much bigger job losses in April as people stay at home and countless businesses close up shop.