Citigroup Leads Steep Nosedive

Stocks fell today—the Dow by more than 200 points—after a Goldman analyst downgraded Citigroup to "sell" in the morning, setting off a skid. The same analyst lowered target prices on Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and several other stocks, which fell by over 2%, the Journal reports. The Dow was down 218.35 to 12,958.44, the Nasdaq 43.86 to 2,593.38, and the S&P 500 25.47 to 1,433.27.

"We are seeing a continuation of the unwinding of investor optimism that we have been seeing since October," says one researcher. The S&P 500 hit a 3-month low today, reports Bloomberg. Lowe's, battered by the housing slump, reduced its earnings forecast again and suffered its biggest 1-day drop since 2003. (More stock market stories.)