Stocks Sink on Record Retail Plunge

Stocks tumbled at the open today, after a raft of negative news overshadowed yesterday’s big rally. The Dow fell 128 points, while the Nasdaq and S&P shed 2% and 1.8% respectively. The Dow shot up more than 500 points yesterday, but today brought a dismal quarterly report from Freddie Mac, a slashed outlook from Nokia, and a record decline in retail sales in October.

Job losses also mounted, with Sun Microsystems announcing layoffs for up to 18% of its workforce, and Citigroup cutting at least 10,000 jobs. Those developments could further cut into retail sales, which fell a record 2.8% last month, according to a government report out today. Nokia’s slashed outlook came with a warning of a “rapid change” in consumer behavior. Nokia fell 12% in premarket trading. (More stock market stories.)