Wall Street retreats

Obama: 'We will get there'

More Videos

Presidential priority: The economy

More Videos

Quick Vote

What should be President-elect Obama's first economic priority?

• Creating jobs
• Solving the Wall St. crisis
• Cutting taxes
• Reducing spending

or View results

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks slumped Wednesday morning as investors welcomed Barack Obama's presidential victory, but returned the focus to the bruised economy he inherits.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU), the Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) index and the Nasdaq composite (COMP) all declined in the early going.

"Now that we've got the election behind us, we've turned the page to what we're concerned about in the economy, and that's the job market," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co.

Obama claimed an historic win in the hard-fought race for the White House on Tuesday. His victory had been priced into the markets because of his lead in pre-election day polls.

Stocks surged Tuesday as investors breathed a sigh of relief that the election was finally coming to an end. The Dow gained 3.3%, the S&P 500 added 4%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 3.1%

Now the uncertainty over the presidential race is over, Obama is faced with the task of guiding the faltering U.S. economy through unprecedented challenges.

Companies: Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500), the largest media company in the world, reported that its third-quarter income from continuing operations rose to 30 cents per share, from 24 cents during the same period last year. The company beat expectations of 27 cents per share, according to a consensus of analyst projections from Thomson Reuters.

Time Warner, the parent company of CNNMoney.com, also lowered its outlook for full-year earnings from continuing operations to a range of $1.04 to $1.07 per share from, down from the previously announced range of $1.07 to $1.11. The company blamed an additional restructuring charge of $100 million to $125 million expected for the fourth quarter, primarily because of layoffs at Time Inc.

The bond insurer Ambac (ABK) announced a net loss of $2.4 billion in the third quarter, or $8.45 per share.

Economy: October was another awful month for jobs as a key employment report released Wednesday showed the largest number of planned job cuts in nearly five years.

Planned job cuts announced by U.S. employers soared to 112,884 in October, up 19% from September's 95,094 cuts, according to a report released Wednesday by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. It was the highest number of pink slips since January 2004. The large-scale layoffs last month were up 79% from October 2007, when 63,114 job cuts were announced.

In a separate study, payroll services firm ADP said the nation shed 157,000 non-farm private jobs in October, seasonally adjusted.

ADP also revised its September employment figure, showing a decline of 26,000 jobs during that period, instead of the previously announced drop of 8,000 jobs.

The readings come ahead of the government's closely watched employment report, due out Friday. The economy is forecast to have lost 200,000 jobs in October, according to economists surveyed by Briefing.com.

World markets: Asian markets rallied on the back of Wall Street's gains. Shares in Tokyo surged 4.5%. But European stocks fell in morning trading, snapping a six-session winning streak.

Oil and currencies: Crude prices tumbled. U.S. crude for December delivery sank $2.27 to $68.26 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The dollar gained against the euro but sank against the yen and the British pound.

Did you vote for Obama? How do you think the new president will affect your wallet? What do you think Obama needs to do to fix the economy - both in the short run and the long term? What should be first on the new Congress's agenda? E-mail us your thoughts, including your name, photo and contact info; the best answers will be featured in an upcoming CNNMoney.com article.