U.S. stocks closed sharply lower Monday after an intraday rally attempt fizzled. The choppy performance followed news that Citigroup (C) is cutting another 50,000-plus jobs, and that the New York Fed's Empire State survey of New York manufacturers fell to a new record low in November. Monday also brought reports that Japan's economy slipped into a recession in the 2008 third quarter.
Traders also eyed a report that October industrial production rose 1.3% in October, while capacity utilization rose to 76.4% from 75.5%.
Meanwhile, Congress was set to argue over aid to General Motors (GM) and other automakers as the list of firms seeking a government bailout continued to grow. More companies want to become banks, notes S&P MarketScope.
Bonds rallied. The dollar index fell. Gold prices were lower. Crude oil futures moved lower.
On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished lower by 223.73 points, or 2.63%, to 8,273.58. The broad S&P 500 index shed 22.54 points, or 2.58%, to 850.75. And the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index dropped 34.80 points, or 2.29%, to 1,482.05.
On the New York Stock Exchange, 24 stocks fell in price for every eight that advanced. The ratio on the Nasdaq was 19-9 negative.
Trading was fairly light before Tuesday's report on the producer price index (PPI) for October. The headline PPI is expected to decline 1.7%.
European stocks closed lower, with London's benchmark index down 2.73%, Frankfurt lower by 3.25%, and Paris falling 3.32%. Asian markets were mixed, with Tokyo stocks up 0.71%, Hong Kong down 0.10%, and Shanghai higher by 2.22%.
The financial sector remained in the spotlight Monday. Citigroup plans to cut 52,000 people from its workforce, CNBC television said. Souring economies and global credit conditions are forcing the U.S. bank with the farthest reach worldwide to retrench. The job cuts are on top of the roughly 23,000 jobs Citigroup has already slashed this year, and would leave the second-largest U.S. bank with about 300,000 jobs worldwide. Cuts are expected to come from layoffs, the sale of units and attrition, CNBC said.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is conducting a global review of its operations and while it has yet to decide on the exact scale of redundancies, thousands of jobs are expected to be lost, according to a report in The Sunday Telegraph.
Top Goldman Sachs (GS) executives, including CEO Lloyd Blankfein, have decided to forgo their 2008 bonuses, ceding potentially tens of millions of dollars in payouts in a year that has seen a reshaping of the securities industry, according to the Wall Street Journal.
After meeting over the weekend in Washington, D.C., the heads of state from nearly two dozen countries agreed to continue working closely together to take the needed steps to bring stability back to the global financial system.
"The G20 statement seemed to smooth over differences by explicitly stating that the crisis a national responsibility. And this is not very new or inspiring," says currency market strategist Marc Chandler of Brown Brothers Harriman.
The Associated Press reported the White House says it supports aid for struggling U.S. automakers, but believes it should not come from the $700 billion financial system rescue fund. In a statement to reporters Monday morning, press secretary Dana Perino said that while the administration takes the position the rescue plan does not apply in this instance, it does share the concerns of many that the industry not be allowed to collapse. Perino said in her statement that the administration wants Congress "to take appropriate action this week to provide assistance" to Detroit. Majority Democrats want to use part of the $700 billion bailout bill for this purpose. Lawmakers are returning Monday for a lame duck session to work on the auto industry issue and reorganize committees for the next session of Congress.
The National Association of Business Economics said the U.S. is sinking deeper into the economic doldrums, and it's likely to stay there for a while. Approximately 96% of the economists polled believe that a recession has started, and nearly three-fourths think it could persist beyond the first quarter of 2009, according to the AP.
AFP reports Japan's economy, the second largest in the world, slipped into recession in the third quarter as companies slashed investment to weather the financial crisis, official data showed Monday. Japan's economy contracted by 0.1% in the three months to September, after shrinking 0.9% in the second quarter of the year, according to a preliminary estimate released by the Cabinet Office. Gross domestic product (GDP) contracted at an annualized rate of 0.4%, it estimated.