Bears Drive Down Stocks on Housing, Economic Data

The U.S. auto companies weren't the only ones coping with a tough market. Toyota (TM Quote) said it will cut production in North American plants and lay off 250 of its temporary workers.

Boeing (BA Quote), which along with GM is a Dow component, is resetting its production schedule as it attempts to recover from a strike by its machinists' union, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, industrial conglomerate and fellow Dow company General Electric (GE Quote) said it would reorganize its GE Capital finance branch to cut costs.

Elsewhere, government-controlled mortgage firm Fannie Mae (FNM Quote) received notice from the New York Stock Exchange that it faces delisting if it can't keep its share price above $1.

Staying with the financials, Citigroup (C Quote) said it would buy $17.4 billion in assets held by structured-investment vehicles, funds that issue short-term debt to make long-term loans at higher debt. Such funds have been significantly hampered by the credit crunch.

Among technology stocks, Microsoft (MSFT Quote) CEO Steve Ballmer said he is no longer considering an acquisition of Yahoo! (YHOO Quote), although he remains open to a collaboration on search. Yahoo! head Jerry Yang, who had been an opponent of a merger between the two companies, said on Tuesday that he would be leaving the CEO spot.

In earnings news, bulk retailer BJ's Wholesale (BJ Quote) reported rising third-quarter profit that was aided by gasoline sales.

As to analyst actions, Goldman Sachs put BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIMM Quote) on its conviction buy list.

In the realm of commodities, crude oil fell 77 cents to settle at $53.62 a barrel. The Energy Department said crude inventories climbed by 1.6 million barrels for the week ended Nov. 14, whereas economists were expecting a rise of 800,000 barrels. Gold was adding $2.60 to $738.60 an ounce.