Stocks slip on consumer worries
Weak retail sales and concerns about Friday's big jobs report drag down markets.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks slipped Thursday morning as weak sales results from Wal-Mart and other retailers combined with jitters about Friday's jobs report, sparking an early selloff.
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 0.7% in the early going. The Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) index fell 0.5% and the Nasdaq composite (COMP) fell 0.4%.
U.S. stocks sharply declined on Wednesday on continued signs of economic weakness, with the Dow industrials down 245 points and the Nasdaq and S&P both 3% lower.
Asian stocks took a drubbing Thursday, with Tokyo's Nikkei index shedding nearly 4%. European markets were lower in afternoon trading.
Also overseas, the Bank of England lowered its key interest rate by half a percentage point to 1.5%, the lowest rate since the bank's founding in the late 17th century.
The job market: The Labor Department reported that initial jobless claims totaled 467,000 in the week ended Jan. 3. This is down from the revised total of 491,000 in the prior week. It is also less than the 550,000 claims that were expected by a consensus of economists surveyed by Briefing.com.
The report comes a day before the government's December jobs report, which is expected to show a decline of 475,000 jobs last month, with the unemployment rate surging to 7% from 6.7% in November. Not including December, the U.S. economy lost more than 1.9 million jobs in 2008.
"I think for the whole year [2009] we're going to see bad jobless numbers," said Todd Leone, head trader at Cowen & Co. "[Businesses] are going to continue to lay off [workers], and they're to continue to run lean."
Same-store sales: The nation's chain stores were reporting dismal results for December throughout the morning. Sales tracker Thomson Reuters expects an overall 1% decline in sales at stores open a year or more.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT, Fortune 500), the world's biggest retailer, reported a 1.7% gain in same-store sales, excluding fuel, for December. This was less than the 2.8% increase projected by a consensus of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. The company also cut its quarterly earnings forecast.
Wal-Mart shares fell 8% Thursday morning.
Among other companies reporting, Williams Sonoma (WSM) saw a 24.3% plunge in same-store sales during the eight-week holiday period. Sears Holdings (SHLD, Fortune 500) said its December same-store sales fell 7.3%.
Speech: President-elect Barack Obama is scheduled to give an economic address at George Mason University in Virginia. He is expected to seek support for a two-year, $775 billion stimulus package.
"I don't believe it's too late to change course, but it will be, if we don't take dramatic action as soon as possible," said Obama, in an excerpt from his written speech.
Oil and money: A day after a 12% tumble, oil was down 69 cents to $41.94 a barrel. The dollar fell versus major international currencies, including the euro, the yen and the British pound. 
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