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

Another winter storm may be headed toward the East Coast of the United States this weekend, on the heels of a powerful and deadly system that blanketed huge swaths of the country in snow and ice. The effects of that original storm have lingered for many areas in its path, and will likely remain as repeated bouts of Arctic air plunge downward from Canada and drive temperatures below freezing. Nikki Nolan contributed to this report. In:

Washington — The Senate is set to take a procedural vote Thursday morning on a package to fund the remaining government agencies and programs, with less than two days to avoid a partial government shutdown. But Democrats say they won't allow the package to move forward without reforms to immigration enforcement. Caitlin Huey-Burns contributed to this report.











