Wall Street stock futures were little changed Friday after a government report showed February job losses were in line with economists’ expectations.

The U.S. economy lost 651,000 jobs last month as the unemployment rate jumped to 8.1%, the U.S. Labour Department said Friday.

Friday’s nonfarm payrolls numbers were in line with economist expectations. However, December and January numbers were revised to show much steeper declines. In the case of December, the revision was to a drop of 681,000, the most since 1949.

The U.S. economy has shed 4.4 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007, with almost half of those losses occurring in the last three months alone.

There are no major economic reports from Statistics Canada today.

The Canadian dollar opened at US77.77¢ on Friday, up 0.15 of a cent from Thursday’s close.

In U.S. banking news, Wells Fargo & Co. slashed its quarterly payout by 85% to 5¢ a share.

Wells Fargo’s dividend cut follows a series of payout cuts started by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

In international banking news, South Africa’s Standard Bank will buy a 33% stake in Troika Dialog, Russia’s second-largest investment bank, in a deal which is the first acquisition by a foreign lender in Russia’s troubled banking sector since the summer.

Troika said in a statement Friday that Standard will pay US$200 million in cash, initially as a convertible loan, and hand over its Russian business in return for a 33% stake in Troika. The deal is still subject to regulatory approval.

In commodities news, benchmark crude for April delivery rose 90¢ to US$44.51 a barrel by late afternoon in Singapore on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Overseas stock markets were lower Friday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average fell 260.39 points, or 3.5%, to 7,173.10, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 289.72, or 2.4%, to 11,921.52.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 was down 0.1% in London. Germany’s DAX index was down 0.4%, and France’s CAC-40 was down 0.6%.

On Thursday, the Toronto Stock Exchange fell back into negative territory on Thursday, dragged down by tumbling financial sector stocks.

The S&P/TSX composite index dropped 185.58 points, or 2.4%, to close at 7,629.17.

The financials group tumbled 5%.


After a volatile day for junior company stocks, the junior S&PTSX Venture exchange finished down 1.26 points, or 0.2%, at 829.69.

South of the border, financial sector stocks also weighed down the main stock market indexes.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 281.4 points, or 4.1%, to close at 6,594.44. It was the Dow’s lowest close since April 15, 1997.

The S&P 500 index dropped 30.32 points, or 4.3%, to end at 682.55.

The Nasdaq composite index slumped 54.15 points, or 4%, to close at 1,299.59.

IE