US STOCKS-Mounting job losses, Chevron, techs sink Wall St

                                
 * Chevron's outlook adds to earnings gloom
                                
 * December jobs data shows labor market worsening
                                
 * Nasdaq off 2 pct; S&P 500 and Dow shed over 1 pct
                                
 * For up-to-the-minute market news, click [STXNEWS/US]
 (Updates to midday)
                                
 By Ellis Mnyandu
                                
 NEW YORK, Jan 9 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks dropped on Friday
after government data showed that the labor market worsened in
December, heightening investors' fears about the outlook for
profits and a deepening recession.
                                
 Payrolls were slashed a bit less than expected but the U.S.
jobless rate climbed to its highest in nearly 16 years,
pressuring already fragile consumer spending.
                                
 Energy shares fell after Chevron Corp <CVX.N> joined a
growing list of bellwether companies warning about their profit
outlooks. Its stocks slid 1.2 percent.
                                
 Technology shares also took a beating, causing the Nasdaq
to briefly wipe out its 2009 gains, led lower by shares of
Apple Inc <AAPL.O> , off more than 2 percent. Cisco Systems
<CSCO.O> slid nearly 5 percent.
                                
 "We just keep seeing bad news. That's all we ever see,"
said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's
Investment Research in Cincinnati, Ohio. "We really have to see
the economy, housing show some type of life."
                                
 The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> slid 102.82 points,
or 1.18 percent, to 8,639.64. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index
<.SPX> fell 14.19 points, or 1.56 percent, to 895.54. The
Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> declined 31.84 points, or 1.97
percent, to 1,585.17.
                                
 Thus far in 2009, the Dow is off 1.6 percent, while the S&P
500 is down about 1 percent.
                                
 The sell-off caused the benchmark S&P 500 to trim its
advance since its Nov. 21 intraday bear-market low to about 19
percent.
                                
 While payrolls were slashed a bit less than expected --
524,000 people lost their jobs rather than the 550,000 seen in
a Reuters poll -- December's cuts put losses for 2008 at 2.6
million, the most since 1945. For more see [ID:nN09282664].
                                
 When warning about its outlook, Chevron, a Dow component
and the second-largest U.S. oil and gas company, cited the
impact of lower energy prices on its exploration and production
business. [ID:nN0844693].
                                
 Chevron shares fell to $73.04, while those of rival Exxon
Mobil Corp <XOM.N> declined 1.6 percent to $77.81. On Nasdaq,
shares of Apple, the maker of the iPhone, dropped 2.3 percent
to $90.62. The semiconductor index <.SOXX> was off more than 3
percent.
                                
 U.S. President-elect Barack Obama cited the faltering jobs
market as a reason in his push for a new stimulus plan set to
include tax cuts and major public works spending that could
total nearly $800 billion. [ID:nN09277196].
                                
 Another standout on the day was a 20 percent plunge in the
shares of Lennar Corp <LEN.N> , the second-largest U.S.
homebuilder, after a letter questioning a late 1990s
transaction involving the company surfaced on the Internet.
                                
 The letter to the FBI and other authorities from California
pastor Barry Minkow, who served time in jail for stock fraud,
concerned a joint venture between Lennar and a private
developer to build a high-end housing project and golf course
in California.
                                
 The stock slid to $9.24, while the Dow Jones home
construction index <.DJUSHB> declined 5.3 percent.
[ID:nN09291128]
 (Editing by Tom Hals)