by Calculated Risk on 12/04/2008 10:50:00 AM

From the WSJ: November Is as Bad as Feared

Retailers reported some of the weakest sales figures in years for November, with many missing downbeat expectations, but Wal-Mart Stores Inc. continued its recent outperformance as it topped estimates on increased store traffic and transaction size.

Layoffs everywhere it seems:

From Bloomberg: AT&T Plans to Reduce 12,000 Jobs, Spending as Slump Deepens

From Bloomberg: State Street Joins Fidelity, Legg Mason in Shedding Fund Jobs

State Street Corp., the world’s largest money manager for institutions, plans to cut 1,700 jobs, the latest in a wave of financial-sector layoffs during the worst year for U.S. stocks since the Great Depression.

State Street will shed about 6 percent of its 28,700 employees by March ...

From MarketWatch: DuPont cuts view, plans major workforce reduction

DuPont Co. slashed its fourth-quarter earnings forecast on Thursday and announced plans to dismiss 6,500 workers, including contractors, due to the downturn in the construction market and a sharp drop off in consumer spending.

And from the WSJ: Nokia Sees Shrinking Handset Market

Nokia Corp., the world's largest mobile handset maker, Thursday cut its global handset market forecasts for the second time in three weeks, warning that the slowdown has accelerated more rapidly than expected.

From Bloomberg: Factory Orders in the U.S. Decrease 5.1%, Most in 8 Years

Orders placed with U.S. factories in October fell by the most in 8 years, signaling a decline in manufacturing will contribute to deepening the recession.

Demand dropped 5.1 percent, more than forecast and the biggest fall since July 2000, after a revised 3.1 percent decrease in September, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. ...

``The general deterioration in both domestic and external demand suggests bleaker times lie ahead for America's factories,'' Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto, said before the report.

This isn't intended to be exhaustive - just a sample of the headlines.