U.K. Stocks Retreat After U.S. Jobs Data; Shell, BHP Lead Slump

By Sarah Jones

Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. stocks extended declines after a report showed U.S. employers eliminated jobs in November at the fastest pace in 34 years and the unemployment rate jumped as the year-long recession engulfing the world’s largest economy deepened.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s biggest oil company, lost 5.4 percent as crude oil trades below $44 a barrel. BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s largest mining company, and Antofagasta Plc dropped more than 8 percent as copper tumbled for a seventh day.

The FTSE 100 Index declined 96.88, or 2.3 percent, to 4,066.73 at 1:32 p.m. in London.

Payrolls shrank by 533,000 workers last month, the biggest loss since December 1974, after decreasing a revised 320,000 the prior month, the Labor Department said today in Washington. November’s job losses exceeded all estimates in a Bloomberg News survey of 73 economists. The jobless rate rose to 6.7 percent, the highest level since 1993.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Jones in London at sjones35@bloomberg.net.