Dow drops over 250pts, Wipro declines 6%

US stocks tumbled on Friday as a sharp rise in unemployment data heightened fears that the economy is heading into a recession.

Both the main indices, the Dow and the Nasdaq Composite, had their worst three-day start to a year. While the Dow had its worst start since the Great Depression, the Nasdaq Comp never had such a start since inception in 1971.

While the Dow plunged 256.54 points (1.96%) to 12,800.18, the Nasdaq Composite was down 98.03 points (3.77%) at 2,504.65.

Indian ADRs, too, closed with sharp losses on Friday. Wipro declined nearly 6% to $13.66. HDFC Bank was down over 5% at $121.53. Infosys, Satyam, ICICI Bank and Tata Motors also declined.