Stocks Plunge on Job Numbers

Stocks took a beating this morning, after Alcoa announced deep job cuts on the heels of a dismal job report. The Dow tumbled 134 points, while the Nasdaq and S&P lost 1.7% and 1.6% respectively. The biggest news was an ADP/Macroeconomic Advisors report that said the private sector had lost nearly 700,000 jobs in December. At the same time, Alcoa announced it was cutting roughly 15,000 jobs.

Alcoa shares dropped 10%. “This is an eye-poppingly bad number,” said one market analyst of the jobs report. Intel fell 4% after reporting an ugly quarter, missing estimates with a 23% drop in sales. Time Warner shares dropped 6% after announcing that the company would write down $25 billion in the fourth quarter, including $15 billion from its cable division. (More stock market stories.)