Stocks resume slide on disappointing sales news
A day after a big gain, the Dow drops almost 300 points in early trading.
Reporting from New York — Add yesterday to the stock market's list of one-day wonders -- and pencil in today as one of those seemingly inevitable follow-on days when stocks resume their slide.
A day after climbing 552 points, the Dow Jones industrial average gave back more than half that amount early today after disappointing retail-sales figures and downbeat comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
Investors were frazzled by a Commerce Department report showing that retail sales slumped 2.8% in October as consumers sat on their wallets amid the carnage on Wall Street. It was the biggest monthly plunge since data was first compiled in 1992, and was worse than the 2.4% expected drop.
Along with a string of profit warnings from major retailers lately, the report only sharpened fears about the deteriorating prospects for the critical holiday-shopping season.
As of 8:20 a.m. Pacific, the Dow was off 297.96 points, or 3.4%, to 8,537.29. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was off 3.8% and the Nasdaq composite index fell 4.2%.
In a speech in Frankfurt, Germany, Bernanke indicated that the Fed might cut interest rates again to spur the economy but it seemed only to unsettle already-worried investors.
Hamilton is a Times staff writer.
walter.hamilton@latimes.com
