Reuters - The U.S. unemployment rate surged to 5.5 percent in May, its highest in more than 3-1/2 years, as the barely growing economy lost jobs for the fifth straight month.

AP - Wall Street tumbled Friday, taking the Dow Jones industrials down nearly 400 points, on a pair of alarming economic developments: oil prices that shot up by more than $11 a barrel and approached $140 for the first time, and the biggest gain in the government's unemployment reading in more than 20 years.

Reuters - Stocks plunged on Friday, marking the Dow's worst day in 15 months, after the government said the May unemployment rate jumped the most in 22 years and oil prices shot to another record, renewing fears that the U.S. economy faces 1970s-style stagflation.

AP - Asked recently how the U.S. minivan market has been faring, Nissan's Dominique Thormann had a concise answer.

Reuters - Top energy officials from the world's biggest consumer nations meet on Saturday to discuss how to tackle surging oil, coal and natural gas prices that pose a growing threat to global economic growth.

AP - Oil prices made their biggest single-day leap ever Friday, dragging the Dow Jones industrials down nearly 400 points and raising the once-unthinkable prospect of $150 oil and more record gas prices by the Fourth of July.

AFP - US unemployment in May unexpectedly surged by the strongest increase in two decades, Labor Department data showed Friday, raising warning flags that the economy is headed in the wrong direction.

Reuters - Oil surged, the dollar weakened and government debt turned strongly higher on Friday after an unexpected jump in the U.S. unemployment rate rattled investors who believe the American economy was recovering.

AFP - The European single currency jumped close to 1.57 dollars on Friday as traders digested news that the US unemployment rate soared to 5.5 percent in May.

Reuters - The U.S. unemployment rate surged to 5.5 percent in May, its highest in more than 3-1/2 years, as the barely growing economy lost jobs for the fifth straight month.