Stocks Mired in Losses

Updated from 11:00 a.m. EST

Stocks in New York were trading with losses Monday, as investors took profits from the previous week's gains and major firms across sectors undertook restructuring measures amid a weakening economic environment.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 372 points to 8457, and the S&P 500 fell 45 points to 851. The Nasdaq was lower by 79 at 1456.

At the end of an abbreviated session Friday, the major averages finished on the upside in light trading. Investors were monitoring the retailers as consumers flocked to stores to partake in "Black Friday" sales, which mark the beginning of the holiday shopping season. Today marks "Cyber Monday," when online retailers compete for Internet sales by offering steep discounts through their Web sites.

The new session also offers occasion for investors to close the book on November, which was filled with wild market swings, including a five-day surge in the Dow and S&P that closed out the month. "We've had a lot of very extreme and in some cases bizarre market movements," said Brian Gendreau, investment strategist at ING Investment Management. He said that much of the volatility has been due to hedge-fund redemptions. That process may be anywhere between half to three-quarters done, he said.

Gendreau said he had been hoping for a bounce in the major averages that follows a major selloff and additional support from the end of the presidential race. "Maybe we got it, but maybe that was it," he said of November's month-end rally.

Ahead of Monday's trading, beleaguered automaker General Motors (GM Quote) was ironing out a plan to cajole Congress into giving it federal money, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. The report indicated that GM's board is willing to explore all restructuring options, including a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, if it can't secure government funds.