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Wall Street finished sharply lower Monday as
investors pored over more signs of economic weakness, including a
huge round of layoffs in the financial sector.

      After a turbulent week that sent the Dow Jones industrials down
nearly 340 points, investors found little solace in the latest
news. 

Stocks zigzagged throughout the session, finally giving way
to a stream of late-day selling that left the Dow Jones industrials
lower by 223 points.

      In a signal that banks are still struggling in the wake of
massive losses tied to bad mortgage debt, Citigroup Inc. is cutting
another 53,000 jobs in the coming quarters. 


The company said that
in addition to job cuts, it plans to lower expenses by about 20
percent and has reduced its assets by more than 20 percent since
the first quarter of the year.

      Investors were also nervously waiting to see whether the
nation's troubled automakers would get a bailout. 


Senate Democrats,
who plan to introduce legislation Monday, want to use part of the
$700 billion Wall Street bailout to help prop up Detroit's Big
Three carmakers: General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler
LLC. A vote was expected as early as Wednesday.


      Meanwhile, a better-than-expected reading on industrial
production did little to boost investor sentiment. 

The Federal
Reserve said Monday that industrial output rose 1.3 percent last
month, after plunging in September by the largest amount in over 60
years. Economists, on average, had expected an increase of 0.2
percent, according to a survey by Thomson/IFR.


      Still, the improvement wasn't encouraging enough, said Anthony
Conroy, managing director and head trader for BNY ConvergEx Group,
adding that investors want a more concrete sign that the economy
could be improving.

      "I think we're seeing a tremendous amount of bad economic
data," he said. "Earnings have basically hit a wall and don't
seem like they are coming back anytime soon."


      According to preliminary calculations, the Dow fell 223.73, or
2.63 percent, to 8,273.58, near its lows of the session.

      Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 22.54, or 2.58 percent, to
850.75, while the Nasdaq composite index dropped 34.80, or 2.29
percent, to 1,482.05.

      The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 5.16, or 1.13
percent, to 451.36.

      Declining issues outpaced advancers by a 2 to 1 margin on the
New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to a light 1.1 billion
shares.

      The moves on Monday followed a massive sell-off last week that
saw the Dow finish down 5 percent; the S&P 500 index down 6.2
percent; and the Nasdaq down 7.9 percent. The major indexes have
fallen for four of the past five sessions.


      Analysts believe the market is still searching for a bottom
after last month's huge losses, and that the pattern of volatility
will continue for some time. 


Woody Dorsey, president of financial
forecasting firm Market Semiotics, said the market is trapped in a
seesaw pattern.

      "It is a very technical trade," he said. "The difficulty is
there is no dominant positive or negative story that the market is
operating on. ... There's nothing here that people can grab on
to."

      In the meantime, investors are still facing a barrage of bad
economic news.

      Wall Street was also disappointed by a lack of direction taken
to resolve the global financial crisis at the meeting of Group of
20 international leaders in Washington this weekend. However, the
leaders did pledge to keep working together to provide loans to
financial institutions.

      In corporate news, Target Corp. on Monday became the latest
retailer to post dour results, citing lower sales at established
stores as the reason for a 24 percent drop in profit. 

Lowe's Cos.,
meanwhile, said its third-quarter profit also fell 24 percent,
better than expected, but it predicted a fourth-quarter profit
below the average analyst forecast.

      The reports follow a spate of disappointing earnings and
forecasts from companies like Macy's Inc., Starbucks Corp. and Best
Buy Co. as they battle a severe pullback in consumer spending.


Investors fear that Americans' clampdown on spending - which
accounts for about two-thirds of economic activity in the U.S. -
will prolong a worsening economic slump.


      On Monday, the Bush White House stressed that it steadfastly
opposes drawing funds from the bailout plan to help the nation's
automakers. The administration supports the idea of helping the
struggling companies, but said the $25 billion that Democrats favor
taking from the rescue plan should come, instead, from a Department
of Energy program previously approved to develop fuel-efficient
vehicles.


      General Motors shares added 8 cents, or 2.66 percent, to $3.09.
Ford slipped 5 cents to $1.75.

      Meanwhile, the layoffs planned at Citigroup underscored the
ongoing distress in the financial sector. The company said total
headcount is being reduced by 20 percent from its peak of 375,000
at the end of 2007; the company had already announced in October
that it was eliminating about 22,000 jobs from those levels. The
New York-based bank has posted four straight quarterly losses,
including a loss of $2.8 billion during the third quarter.

      The fallout from this year's global credit crisis has claimed
jobs on all corners of Wall Street, from hedge fund managers to
floor traders and beyond. Some industry experts forecast the job
losses could come close to 200,000 before the year is over.

      On Sunday, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said seven top executives,
including Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein, opted out of receiving
cash or stock bonuses for 2008 amid the ongoing credit crisis.

      Citi's leaders may also go without bonuses this year - a move
that would effectively amount to a substantial pay cut for the
company's executives.

      Citigroup shares fell 65 cents to $8.87. Goldman sank $4.39, or
6.6 percent, to $62.34.

      Government bond prices were higher as investors looked for
safety. The three-month Treasury bill's yield fell to 0.10 percent
from 0.14 percent late Friday, and the yield on the benchmark
10-year Treasury note fell to 3.68 percent from 3.72 percent late
Friday. Lower yields indicate higher demand.

      The dollar fell against most other major currencies, and gold
prices also declined.

      Light, sweet crude closed at a 22-month low, falling $2.11 to
settle at $54.95 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

      In Asian trading, Japan's Nikkei index rose 0.71 percent,
despite a report showing the second-straight quarterly decline in
gross domestic product - signaling a recession. Hong Kong's Hang
Seng Index fell 0.10 percent.

      In European trading, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 2.38 percent,
Germany's DAX index fell 3.25 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell
3.32 percent.

Gallery

Target CEO remains optimistic, despite dismal earnings report

Citigroup to cut 53,000 more jobs

Business and Economic News

Wall Street finished sharply lower Monday as
investors pored over more signs of economic weakness, including a
huge round of layoffs in the financial sector.


Stocks finish lower as recession worries deepen

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