Not that we needed any more bad economic news, but it's still coming:
Slumping retail sales, poor corporate earnings and trouble in the auto industry conspired to darken the outlook for the American economy on Thursday. But investors bet that the worst was yet to come.
The Dow Jones industrial average plummeted 443.48 points, bringing its total loss since Tuesday to nearly 1,000 points. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, a broader measure of the stock market, dropped 5 percent; in two days, the S.&P. has lost nearly 10 percent of its value.
“There’s a lot of fear out there,” said Brian Gendreau, a strategist at ING Investment Management in New York. “Normally markets are driven by fear and greed. Now it’s fear and fear.”
Investors retrenched after a premarket report showed that sales slowed sharply in October at the nation’s retailers. This holiday shopping season could be the worst in years, analysts said, as consumers buckle down to ride out a looming recession.
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