Stocks continue to fall, adding to biggest retreat of the year

Wall Street is opening lower as worries build that the U.S. may be headed for a painful recession. 

The S&P 500 fell 37 points, or nearly 1%, to 3,891 as of 11:40 a.m. EST Thursday. The Dow dropped 252 points, or 0.8%, to 33,044 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq was down 1.3%. 

Reports showed weakness in several areas of the economy, including the housing industry and manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region, though they weren't quite as bad as expected and the job market appears to remain healthy. They follow worse-than-expected readings a day earlier on retail sales, a cornerstone of the economy, and industrial production. Altogether, they show an economy slowing under the weight of last year's blizzard of rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.