A week marked by bleak corporate developments from a host of sector bellwethers drew to a close with more selling pressure on Wall Street on Friday after data that showed that the US economy last year shed the most jobs since 1945 further underscored the depth of the recession.

The market opened broadly flat as the bleak non-farm payrolls data from the Labor Department showing that 524,000 jobs were lost in December were no worse than traders’ biggest fears and broadly in line with the figures economists forecast in a Bloomberg poll.