Watch full size video:

NEW YORK — Wall Street extended its sharp declines into a fourth day today, with the Dow Jones industrials briefly dropping unworthy of 8,000 as investors continued their selling amid a stream of negative relating to housekeeping news.

With 2 ½ hours of trading to go, the Dow was down 152.05, or 1.8 percent, to 8,130.61 after falling at the same time that much as 316 points to 7,966.22 earlier in the session.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index hew down 14.21, or 1.7 percent, to 838.09 after dropping to 818.69, well underneath its intraday low of 839.80 on Oct. 10.

The Nasdaq composite index shed 33.53, or 2.2 percent, to 1,465.68.

The market met with more disappointing data early in the day. The Labor Department reported that the number of newly laid-off individuals seeking unemployment benefits jumped last week to a bring to the same level not seen seeing that just after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

And there were more signs of a severe pullback in consumer spending that pummeled stocks earlier in the week. Wal-Mart Stores trimmed expectations notwithstanding full-year earnings. And Intel late Wednesday divide more than $1 billion from its sales forecast, providing more proof that few industries are safe from a clampdown on spending by businesses as abundantly similar to consumers.

The market had fluctuated in a narrow range until early in the afternoon while sellers returned.

“There are a host of things that have us nervous, and I think what you’re seeing is liquidation selling,” said Arthur Hogan, chief place of traffic algebraist at Jefferies & Co. “I think we’re seeing a market pricing in bad news on a daily base and in a swift fashion. The market can change its mind speedily as to how much bad intelligence has been priced.”

Others described the market’s moves for the reason that technical in nature.

Ryan Larson, senior equity trader at Voyageur Asset Management, said that in the absence of good news to take stocks higher, traders were retesting the lows made Oct. 10 — an playing that principally market analysts had predicted would happen sooner or later.

If the index be possible to’t reaction above those levels, “it’s not going to be good for this market,” Larson said. “We rally onward hopes, we sell-off on terror, and fear is the dominating factor upon the body the Street.”

After the week’s litany of bad news, which furthermore included disappointing reports from Macy’s and Starbucks, investors were trying to come to terms through the fact that the established order is in for a protracted downturn.