The National Bureau of Economic Research announced that the nation has been in a recession since 2007 sending the markets tumbling during the midday with the Dow slumping 451 points to 8378. Nasdaq skidded 95 points to 1441.
On the upside
Oppenheimer & Co. upgraded Premiere Global Services (NYSE: PGI) saying that corporate cost cutting measures should increase demand for Premiere's teleconferencing products.
On the downside
Pilgrim's Pride (NYSE: PPC) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Falling meat prices and debt associated with the acquisition of Gold Kist has hurt the chicken producer.
Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) priced $1 billion of its five year notes at a yield of 2.861%.
Standard & Poor's will move Liz Claiborne (NYSE: LIZ) from the S&P 500 to the S&P SmallCap 600 at the end of trading today because the clothing company's market capitalization has fallen.
Shares of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) all fell after disappointing manufacturing data sparked concerns of a deepening economic crisis.
Sprint (NYSE: S) and Clearwire completed its $14.5 billion merger creating a new WiMAX company offering ultra-fast, wireless broadband service under the brand name Clear.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 7 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks plummeted 34 points to 440.
