YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The best monthly jobs report in four years couldn't keep sellers from sending stocks to their fourth straight loss, which contributed to the stock market's worst weekly performance in one year.

Despite persistent weakness overseas amid continued contagion concerns, stocks managed to attract some modest support as some speculated that a rebound may be in order after the stock market sank some 6% during the course of the three previous sessions. The worst of that loss came Thursday, when the Dow's intraday drop of almost 1000 points was blamed on the failure of computerized trades and electronic networks. In response, both the NYSE and Nasdaq cancelled trades from a 20 minute time block that saw prices greater than or less than 60% away from the consolidated last print price.

However, stocks were unable to sustain the early bid. News that nonfarm payrolls for April surged 290,000, the largest increase since March 2006, couldn't even secure support for stocks.

As an aside, the headline unemployment rate climbed to 9.9% from 9.7% as a result of workers re-entering the workforce.

With sellers reaffirming control, stocks were unable to make anything more than a few upward charges, each of which proved fruitless in the face of resistance.

Heavy volume to the downside made for widespread weakness. As such, nearly 90% of the names in the S&P 500 logged losses and declining share volume on represented 85% of the NYSE's total trading volume, which surpassed 2 billion shares for the second straight session. Volume on the NYSE has not broken 2 billion shares in back-to-back sessions in more than one year. What's more, neither of those two sessions have been options expirations sessions.

Such steep losses amid such heavy volume has caused volatility to spike to its highest level in more than a year. The Volatility Index settled this session roughly 25% higher.

The heightened volatility has given support to gold, which closed this session at $1213 per ounce, up 1.3% for the session. Gold prices actually set a new 2010 high of almost $1215 per ounce earlier in the session.

The CRB Commodity Index shed 0.6% to log its fourth straight loss. It finished this week 5.9% lower, which makes for its worst weekly loss in one year.

Crude prices continued to roll over. Oil prices had been above $87 per barrel at the beginning of the week, but it closed the week at $75.11 per barrel. This session alone the energy component shed 2.6% to close below its 200-day moving average and at its lowest level since February.

Natural gas garnered support, though. The price of the forward contract climbed 2.2% to $4.02 per MMBtu.

Gold prices continued their ascent. The yellow metal closed with a 1.3% gain at $1213 per ounce after it had set a new 2010 high of almost $1215 per ounce.

Silver was even stronger this session. It spiked 6.2% to $18.61 per ounce, which puts it slightly below the 2010 high of $18.89 per ounce that was set earlier this week.

Treasuries failed to secure support, though. The benchmark 10-year Note fell several ticks, such that its yield moved back above 3.40%.

Meanwhile, the stock market booked its worst closed in two months. That contributed to a weekly loss of more than 6%, which makes for the stock market's worst weekly slide in one year.

Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Tech (-2.3), Industrials (-2.1%), Consumer Discretionary (-1.9%), Energy (-1.5%), Health Care (-1.4%), Materials (-1.3%), Financials (-1.2%), Telecom (-0.6%), , Utilities (-0.6%), Consumer Staples (-0.5%) DJ30 -139.89 NASDAQ -54.00 NQ100 -2.3% R2K -2.9% SP400 -2.5% SP500 -17.27 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 577/4.11 bln/2115 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 887/2.41 bln/2229