4:25PM EST: US stocks plunged on Friday, causing the Dow to end down nearly 400 points, on renewed fears that the U.S. economy is threatened by 1970s-style stagflation after government data showed the jobless rate jumped the most in 22 years in May and the price of oil surged to a record above $139 a barrel.

This news came just moments after it was reported that Oil prices surged up more than $11 to new record high above $139 a barrel.

According to a Morgan Stanley analyst, prices could hit $150 by the Fourth of July.

Additionally, Bloomberg News reports that the U.S. lost jobs for a fifth month and the unemployment rate rose by the most in more than two decades, as an influx of students into the workforce drove the biggest jump in teenage joblessness since at least 1948.

(Dov Gordon – YWN News Desk)