▸ Wall Street slides on fears of a sus­tained eco­nomic slow­down

▸ Dol­lar retreats while Treas­ur­ies rally as investors bet on faster US rate cuts

▸ Paris stocks weaker ahead of cru­cial French gov­ern­ment con­fid­ence vote

Wall Street stocks slid yes­ter­day after US employ­ment data indic­ated that the world's biggest eco­nomy was slow­ing down.

The closely watched fig­ure for non­farm payrolls showed that just 22,000 jobs were added in August, far fewer than the 75,000 that ana­lysts had expec­ted.

The blue-chip S&P 500 index ini­tially jumped to a record high as traders piled on bets of faster interest rate cuts.

But the US bench­mark soon reversed course on fears of a sus­tained eco­nomic slow­down and was 0.5 per cent lower on the day by early after­noon in New York.

The tech-heavy Nas­daq Com­pos­ite was down 0.2 per cent after also briefly hit­ting a new record.

The weak data revived investors' fears of stag­fla­tion emer­ging in the US.