Stocks tumbled in early trading today as investors faced more poor economic news. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.4 percent or 114.7 points and the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 1.8 percent or 15.8 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was down about 1.8 percent or 27.4 points. The sell off has already wiped away most of yesterday's gains. New homes sales fell 14.7 percent in December, compared with the previous month, and about 45 percent compared with the same period last year, according to government data. That was worse than analysts expected. Orders for big-ticket durable goods fell 2.6 percent in December, the fifth monthly decline in a row, according to Commerce Department data. Excluding defense purchases, orders fell even faster, 4.9 percent. The "industrial recession is deep and broad and there's no prospect of any easing of the downward pressure anytime soon," Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist for High Frequency Economics, said in a research note. Workers filing for new unemployment benefits rose by 3,000 to 588,000 last week, according to the Labor Department. While initial claims was relatively steady, they exceeded analysts' expectations. Worse, analysts said, the total number of workers filing claims for jobless benefits lasting more than one week soared to 4,776,000 -- a new record. "The rapid increase in continuing jobless claims ... certainly suggests that the unemployment rate kept moving upward at a decent clip" in January, Abiel Reinhart, an analyst with JPMorgan Chase Bank, said in a research note this morning. Ford was down about 2 percent after reporting a nearly $6 billion loss during its fourth quarter and $14.6 billion for all of 2008. Despite its deep losses, Ford said it still does not need to tap into federal aid. Eastman Kodak Co. announced today it would cut 3,500 to 4,500 jobs and reported a $137 million fourth-quarter loss. Its stock tumbled 21 percent. "The second half of 2008 will go down in history as one of the most challenging periods we have seen in decades," Antonio M. Perez, Eastman's chief executive, said in a statement. During "the last three months of the year, we experienced dramatic declines in several of our key businesses due to the slowdown in consumer spending and significantly reduced demand for capital equipment." Crude oil prices fell 3 percent to $41 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Overseas stocks were mixed. In London, the FTSE and the Dax in Germany fell about 3 percent. Japan's Nikkei is up 1.8 percent.

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