U.S. stocks fell

U.S. stocks fell, dragging the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lower following its worst week of 2012, after employers added fewer jobs than forecast in March.

Equities slumped last week after the Federal Reserve signaled it will refrain from further monetary stimulus and concern about Europe intensified. The U.S. Labor Department said April 6 that employers added 120,000 jobs, the fewest in five months and less than the median economist forecast of 205,000. The amount had exceeded 200,000 for three straight months.

Dow    12,939.73        -120.41           -0.92%, Nasdaq          3,048.27          -32.23 -1.05%, S&P 500       1,382.60            -15.48 -1.11%

Bank of America (ВАС) lost 3.1 percent to $8.94, the biggest retreat in the Dow. JPMorgan (JPM) erased 1.4 percent to $43.73.

Industrial stocks fell 1.7 percent for the second-biggest drop as a group in the S&P 500. Caterpillar (САТ) , the world’s largest construction and mining-equipment manufacturer, retreated 2.5 percent to $103.18, while General Electric (GE), the maker of jet engines and power generation equipment, declined 2 percent to $19.11.

Alcoa (АА) fell 0.3 percent to $9.60. The largest U.S. aluminum producer will report first-quarter earnings after the close of trading tomorrow.

AOL soared the most since at least November 2009, adding 46 percent to $26.81. The Internet company, under shareholder pressure to make strategic changes as revenue declines, agreed to sell and license more than 800 patents to Microsoft in a deal worth $1.06 billion. Microsoft stock fell 0.7 percent to $31.29.