US stocks fall under Greek debt cloud

US equity markets fell Friday as investors braced for a Greek confidence vote that could oust the prime minister and trigger fresh eurozone debt turmoil. A mixed US jobs report offered some small signs of improvement, but reminded that high unemployment was well-entrenched in the slowly growing economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 61.23 points (0.51 percent) to close at 11,983.24. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 11.82 points (0.44 percent) to 2,686.15, while the S&P 500-stock index, a broader measure of the markets, lost 7.92 points (0.63 percent) to 1,253.23. After two straight sessions of solid gains, Wall Street stocks were under pressure from worries about the fast-changing developments in the European debt crisis. "Traders today seemed particularly disappointed by the G20's unwillingness to throw its financial support behind Europe," said Elizabeth Harrow at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "The group's two-day meeting failed to produce any major progress toward bolstering the European Financial Stability Facility," the eurozone rescue fund, the analyst said. The Europe woes overshadowed a mixed October jobs report from the Labor Department. The US unemployment rate unexpectedly slipped to 9.0 percent from 9.1 percent the prior month. The number of net new jobs added -- 80,000 -- disappointed, though improvement was seen in upward revisions to prior months' numbers. "The synopsis of the October report is that it matches a low-growth environment. It also reveals, as have past reports, that there is still much work to be done to improve the labor market," said Patrick O'Hare at Briefing.com. Big US bank stocks dropped. Bank of America slid 6.1 percent, Morgan Stanley lost 1.4 percent, Goldman Sachs fell 2.5 percent and JPMorgan Chase shed 1.2 percent. The long-awaited Wall Street debut of online daily deals firm Groupon was a runaway success. Groupon raised $700 million with the largest IPO by an Internet company since Google, which reaped $1.7 billion when it went public in August 2004. Groupon offered 35 million shares priced at $20. Its shares, trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol GRPN, soared 30.1 percent to $26.11. Computer chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices slipped 1.1 percent to $5.67 after announcing late Thursday it would slash 10 percent of its workforce, or about 1,400 jobs, to cut costs. Embattled insurance giant American International Group dropped 2.9 percent to $23.91 after reporting a bigger-than-expected $4.1 billion quarterly loss. Coffee firm Starbucks soared 6.7 percent to $44.19 after beating quarterly earnings forecasts. Bond prices edged higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 2.05 percent from 2.07 percent Thursday, while that on the 30-year Treasury dropped to 3.10 percent from 3.12 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.