(August 1, 2008)—Stocks saw triple-digit moves in the Dow in each of the past four sessions, but moved sharply lower Thursday, on the heels of a government report that showed unemployment on the rise.

According to the report, the number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits rose to the highest level in five years. The increase of 44,000 took new claims to 448,000.

The US Labor Department Releases its unemployment numbers for July Friday and economists expect the unemployment rate to hit 5.6%, up a tenth of a percent from June.

Markets all over Asia tumbled Friday, following the anxiety over the difficulties facing Wall Street. European markets have opened mostly lower.

Concerns over the housing and credit markets deepened after Merrill Lynch announced a 5.7 billion-dollar loss thanks to bad debt.

Honda and Toyota shares declined more than 2 percent. Toyota scaled back its sales forecast Thursday because of sluggish sales in the US.

After the market in Tokyo closed, Sony reported a 50 percent drop in second-quarter profits, due partly to a stronger yen that eroded sales.

Prior to the Wall Street opening bell Friday, The Dow stands at 11,378 after slipping nearly 206 points, the S&P is at 1,267 after a loss of nearly 17 points and the Nasdaq is at 2,325, having dropped four.