The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 114.50 points, or 1.12%, to 10,125.40; the S&P 500 lost 11.40 points, or 1%, to 1130.65; and the Nasdaq shed 22.51 points, or 1.14%, to 1948.52, breaking the tech index's seven-day winning streak. The 10-year Treasury bond was down 7/32 in price to yield 4.25%, while the dollar was higher against the yen and euro.

Volume was moderate on the New York Stock Exchange with just over 1.4 billion shares trading, while 1.7 billion shares changed hands at the Nasdaq. Advancers trailed decliners by roughly 3 to 7 on both.

High oil, profit-taking, and jitters about tomorrow's employment report weighed on the market, said Al Goldman, chief market strategist at A.G. Edwards. "You shake it all up, and you add in the bloodletting from the big pharmaceuticals, and you've got a down market."

The pessimism was fueled by a string of mostly depressed retail-sales reports and concern that Pfizer's (PFE - commentary - Cramer's Take) blockbuster arthritis treatment Celebrex might suffer the same fate as Merck's (MRK - commentary - Cramer's Take) Vioxx.

Pfizer fell nearly 4% after the New England Journal of Medicine published an editorial counseling prudence in the prescription of so-called COX-2 inhibitors to patients with heart problems. Those concerns led Merck to pull Vioxx last week. Pfizer's Celebrex is in the same class of drugs.

Pfizer fell $1.19 to $29.99, while Merck skidded 69 cents, or 2.2%, to $30.98. The stocks were the Dow's two biggest percentage losers. The Amex Pharmaceutical Index fell 2.7%.

Nymex crude for November delivery closed 65 cents higher at $52.67, another record for the contract, spiking anew on concerns about U.S. winter heating oil supplies. A government inventory report Wednesday showed U.S. crude stocks rising about 1.1 million in the week to Oct. 1, a smaller build than had been expected. Storm damage along the Gulf Coast has cut overall inventories by about 9% since July.