U.S. stock indexes fell sharply early Friday after the government reported that the American economy added no new jobs in August.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 key stocks and the technology-laden NASDAQ are both off 2 percent. The broader S&P 500 is down 2.1 percent.

Stocks were markedly lower in afternoon trading on European exchanges.

London's Financial Times index is down 2.5 percent. The CAC-40 in Paris is off 3.5 percent, and the DAX index in Frankfurt is down 3.6 percent.

Earlier, in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index lost 1.2 percent to finish at 8,951.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost 1.8 percent to finish the day's trading at 20,213.

Gold is trading up $49.29 at $1,875.39 an ounce.

The dollar is trading up against the euro, but down against the yen.