Stocks Sink After Opening Lower

Stocks fell out of bed this morning, as the major indexes opened lower and
fell through the session. Massive corporate writedowns and disappointing retail
numbers led to selling across the board today, as investors continue to reel
from subprime, housing and economic worries.

Citigroup
(
C |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
fell over 4% in morning trading after posting the
company’s largest loss in history (full
story
).

Foot Locker
(
FL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
plummeted 14% after being downgraded from Neutral
to Sell at Goldman Sachs (full
story
).

State Street
(
STT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
sank 5% after reporting a substantial drop in
profit stemming from a $279 million charge (full
story
).

Merrill Lynch
(
MER |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
dropped 3% after announcing raising $6.6.
billion from mostly Asian investors (full
story
).

Gold hit fresh record highs today on recession worries and dollar weakness.
Oil prices fell over 2% on speculation that economic weakness will hurt energy
demand.

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Market Snapshot

Dow


209.24
12569.88

NASDAQ


48.16
2430.12

S&P 500


28.30
1387.95

Strongest/Weakest Industry Groups

Strongest Industries

% Change

Weakest Industries

% Change

Airlines
+3.42%

Consumer Electronics
-6.02%

Security and Protection Services
+0.67%

Apparel Stores
-5.09%

Non-Metallic Mineral Mining
+0.60%

Steel
-5.00%

Economic
News


U.S. Producer Prices fell 0.1% in December, more than expected.