NEW YORK (July 2, 2009)--A dour report on job losses in June sent stocks sharply lower Thursday.

Major stock indexes were down more than 2.4 percent in the late afternoon.

Trading on the New York Stock Exchange was going on beyond the usual 4 p.m. market close until 4:15 p.m. Eastern time in order to execute customer orders impacted by system irregularities, an NYSE spokeswoman says.

Investors were selling off stocks after a government report said the U.S. unemployment rate hit a 26-year high last month.

The Dow Jones industrials were down 212 points to 8,291; the Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 26 to 897 and the Nasdaq composite index was down 49 to 1,796.