By Alan Fein

(AXcess News) New York - The Dow lost more than 184 points in late morning trading in New York Thursday after two economic reports where released.  Stocks plunged after a disappointing weekly jobs report followed by a durable goods report for Jauary that implied orders where just not there.

The US Department of Labor released the first bad news; initial jobless claims last week grew by 22,000, marking the 6th week out of 8 that jobless claims had gone up.

Next came a report from the US Department of Commerce on durable goods orders, which showed a 3% gain in January, double the amount economists were forecasting, though the sharp increase over December's revised 1.9% gain came from civilian aircraft orders that less those durable goods, would have seen the nations manufacturing sector of big ticket items shrink 0.6%.  That decline marked the end of two consecutive monthly gains.  The news was too much to bare.

Dow fell 184 points just before noon in New York though the DJIA managed to show some recovery to trade at a loss of 158, or 1.52%, at 10,215 by 1:21pm ET.  The broader S&P 500 Index gave up nearly 15 points, or 1,35%, to trade at 1,090 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq National Market Index lost almost 30 points, or 1.34%, at 2,205.

The benchmark 10-year treasury bond rose, pushing its yield down 0.5900 to 3.6360%.

Crude oil reacted to the economic news, falling $2.36 per barrel, or 2.95%, to $77.64 as a slower-than-hoped for recovery signaled a slowdown in energy consumption.

The euro also fell to a nine-month low against the dollar as worries of Greece's soverign debt where renewed after both Moody's and Standard & Poor's said they where reviewing the Country's debt for another possible downgrade.

Concern over Greece and the slow recovery of the US economy brought new life to precious metals as investors made a flight to safety, pushing gold futures in New York up $9 per ounce to trade at $1106.20 for a gain of 0.82%.  Silver futures followed gold higher, rising 0.147, or 0.92%, to trade at $16.11.