U.S. Stocks Sink as Investors Look to Take Profits

Troubles weren't confined to Asia. The European Commission on Wednesday called for a $256 billion economic stimulus plan to help the continent alleviate its own recessionary woes.

As data releases painted a picture of the downturn, reports indicated that President-elect Barack Obama would tap former Federal Reserve Chair Paul Volcker to head a White House advisory board geared at steering the U.S. through the current financial turmoil.

As for the day's corporate earnings, equipment maker Deere (DE Quote) announced an 18% decline in fourth-quarter profit.

Jeweler Tiffany (TIF Quote), meanwhile, announced a 57% decline in earnings on flagging U.S. sales.

In other company news, Fitch Ratings cut its debt rating on Toyota (TM Quote), putting a negative outlook on the company. Both domestic and foreign automakers have had a rough go of it thanks to flagging demand.

Canadian telecom company BCE (BCE Quote), announced that its leveraged buyout may not take place by its scheduled date of Dec. 11.

Among financial firms, Goldman Sachs (GS Quote) ended discussions with Panasonic (PC Quote) about a potential sale of Goldman's stake in Sanyo. Goldman cited concerns about the price and deal structure as it walked away.

In the commodities space, crude oil was climbing $1.92 to $52.69 a barrel. Gold was slipping 50 cents to $820 an ounce.

Longer-dated U.S. Treasury securities were rising in price. The 10-year was adding 16/32 to yield 3.05%, and the 30-year was up 1-6/32, yielding 3.56%. The dollar was higher vs. the euro and pound but softening against the yen.