Investors want evidence to persuade the Federal Reserve that the economy needs a cut in interest rates. They just didn't want the evidence to be quite so compelling.

Stocks tumbled in early trading after the government released a surprisingly weak employment report. Four-thousand jobs were lost from the nation's payrolls, the first decline in employment since August 2003. Payroll gains in July and June were also revised lower.

The report was a clear sign that the slump in the housing market, and the resulting turmoil in the credit markets, are having a much broader effect on the economy, possibly dragging it into a recession.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell about 150 points in the first few minutes of trading.