Wall Street stock futures declined Friday after a government report showed U.S. job losses accelerate, tumbling a larger-than-expected 240,000 in October and pushing the unemployment rate to 14-year highs of 6.5%.

Nonfarm payrolls, which are calculated by a survey of establishments, tumbled a larger-than-expected 240,000 in October, the U.S. Labour Department said Friday, the 10th-straight decline, pushing total job losses for the year to 1.2 million.

Here at home, the jobless rate rose one-tenth of a percentage point to 6.2% for October, as the economy beat expectations by adding 9,500 jobs.

The Canadian dollar opened at US83.33¢, down 0.59 cents after losing almost three cents during the past two days.

In today’s earnings news, Ford Motor Co. reported a third-quarter net loss of US$129 as it burned through $7.7 billion in cash. Ford also said it is cutting 10% of its North American salaried workforce.

Air Canada posted a net loss of $132 million in the third quarter as the airline’s fuel bill soared 49% to $1.1 billion.

Quebecor Inc. reported third-quarter earnings of $45.6 million, up from a year-ago loss of $35.2 million. Revenue increased 8.8% to $908.1 million.

Tim Hortons Inc. posted a 16.9% jump in third-quarter profit to $78.8 million. Same-store sales rose 3.8% in Canada but declined 0.6% in the U.S.

In commodities news, oil prices pulled up after a two-day plunge. The near-month light sweet crude contract was higher by $1.36 at US$62.13 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei index fell 3.6% but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 3.3%.

The FTSE 100 was up 1.2% early in the afternoon in London, while Germany’s DAX was flat and the Paris CAC-40 edged up 0.2%.

A plunge in oil prices slammed energy stocks on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday, sending the benchmark index down more than 300 points.

The S&P/TSX composite index dropped 331.79 points, or 3.36%, to end the day at 9,555.41.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index fell 31.29 points, or 3.29%, to close at 920.13.

In New York, a second day of declines sent American stocks into their largest two-day slump since 1987.

The Dow Jones industrial average plummeted 443.48 points, or 4.85%, to 8,695.79. The S&P 500 index fell 47.89 points, or 5%, to 904.9, putting its two-day loss at 10%. The Nasdaq composite index shed 72.94 points, or 4.34%, to finish the day at 1,608.70.

IE