By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks on Friday fell for a fourth day this week, retreating after the prior session's rally, with retail sales declining a record amount in October, J.C. Penney Co. offering an outlook miss and Nokia Inc. warning of falling handset sales. "The biggest hit starts with everything that's big," said Richard Hastings, consumer strategist at Global Hunter Securities. "People have been cutting back first on the biggest ticket, which was houses. Then it spread to automobiles in a very nasty way, and is now spreading into consumer electronics [and] appliances." Listen to Hastings. Equities added to early declines as U.S. consumer sentiment edged up in early November, but remained quite low, according to a report on the University of Michigan/Reuters index. See Economic Report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 283.62 points to 8,551.63, which would translate into a weekly drop of 4.4%. All but two of the blue-chip index's 30 components posted losses, which were led by Caterpillar Inc. , off 6.2%, semiconductor giant Intel Corp., off 7.4%, and Home Depot Inc., down 6.2%. Erasing initial gains, Citigroup Inc. shares also succumbed, off 4.3%, after The Wall Street Journal reported the bank is expected to slash at least 10,000 jobs across the globe. Read more. General Motors Corp. led the Dow's limited gains, with shares of the automaker recently ahead 1.7%. The S&P 500 fell 29.71 points to 881.58, poising it for a 5.3% drop from last Friday's close. Energy shares fronted losses among the broader market index's 10 industry groups. See Energy Stocks. Oil futures also declined, with crude for December delivery off $1.77 at $56.47 a barrel. Read Futures Movers. The Nasdaq Composite lost 61.21 points to 1,535.49 with the technology-heavy index slammed after Nokia warned cell-phone sales industry-wide will fall next year Read more, and Sun Microsystems Inc. said it would shed as many as 6,000 workers, or up to 18% of its workforce. See Tech Stocks. Shares of Sun were flat. Read more. The Nasdaq Composite was readying for a weekly hit as well, with the index off 6.8% for the week. Early volume topped 362 million on the New York Stock Exchange, and decliners outpaced advancers nearly 5 to 1. Nearly 257 million shares traded on the Nasdaq, with declining issues also topping those advancing almost 4 to 1. Retail woes The Commerce Department estimated U.S. retail sales fell a record 2.8% last month, worse than the 2.3% expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch. See detailed report. Illustrating the government report were results from retailers including J.C. Penney and Nordstrom Inc. Separately, the Labor Department reported import prices fell 4.7% in October as petroleum prices dropped. Read Economic Report. In a speech Friday before the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said central banks around the world are ready to take additional actions to restore financial market stability. See The Fed. Freddie Mac (FRE: 0.61, -0.12, -16.5%) , already a penny stock, reported a $25 billion third-quarter loss. Overseas, Italy and Hong Kong fell into recession, though France narrowly escaped that distinction as its economy edged up 0.1% in the third quarter. The Nikkei 225 climbed 2.7% in Tokyo and the FTSE 100 rose 3.5% in London. U.S. stocks surged Thursday after initially falling below Oct. 10 lows. After the lows were reached, there was a wave of buying across the board that was led by oil producers. The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 552 points, the Nasdaq Composite rose 97 points and the S&P 500 rose 58 points.

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