US stocks slide on jobless forecast and energy earnings

New York - Major US stock indices declined Wednesday for the first time in five days ahead of a monthly jobs report, a drop in oil prices and poor earnings forecasts from the energy sector.

Just days before the Labour Department is set to release monthly unemployment figures, private firm Automatic Data Processing estimated that US firms slashed 532,000 workers in May. A Bloomberg News survey of economists is predicting 520,000 jobs were lost on the month.

That would bring to more than 6 million the number of US jobs that have been lost since a deep recession began in December 2007.

Valero Energy's stock price fell 18 per cent after it predicted a loss for the second quarter. The price of crude oil fell 3.6 per cent to 66.11 dollars per barrel in New York after an Energy Department report found US oil supplies were unexpectedly high.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 65.63 points, or 0.75 per cent, to 8,675.24. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 12.98 points, or 1.37 per cent, to 931.76. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell 10.88 points, or 0.59 per cent, to 1,825.92.

The dollar climbed against the euro to 70.63 euro cents from 69.87 euro cents on Tuesday and rose against the Japanese currency to 95.97 yen from 95.70 yen.//DPA