Tanking financial stocks provoked another Wall Street selloff Monday, sending the Dow to its second straight triple-digit plunge and the Nasdaq Composite to a fresh 5-1/2-year low. 

Today’s Market

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 223.73 points, or 2.63%, to 8273.58, the broader S&P 500 fell 22.54 points, or 2.58%, to 850.75 and the Nasdaq Composite slid 34.80 points, or 2.29%, to 1482.05. The consumer-friendly FOX 50 dropped 15.47 points, or 2.31%, to 653.44.

"The financials continue to be very weak.... The overall breadth remains dramatically negative," NYSE trader Ted Weisberg of Seaport Securities told FOX Business. 

The markets remain highly volatile as the Dow suffered two separate 200-point plunges on Monday, ending the day near its lowest levels. 

"We’re in the healing process but we’re going to bounce around for a while here before picking a new direction," said Paul Nolte, director of investments at Hinsdale Associates. 

The selloff comes after Citigroup (C) unveiled plans to slash more than 50,000 jobs and retailers like Lowe's (LOW) and Target (TGT) released pessimistic guidance. The selling also adds to the pain inflicted by Friday's 337-point plunge on the Dow, which is off by more than 11% in November.

All but three of the 30 components of the Dow ended in the red, led by plunges from aluminum maker Alcoa (AA) and Disney (DIS). Financial giants Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup also saw their shares hammered. General Motors (GM) was the biggest percentage winner on the index, rising on hopes for a federal bailout.

When the selling ended, the Dow was left less than 100 points away from its 5-1/2-year closing low last hit on October 27. The Nasdaq Composite broke through its recent low, closing at its worst level since May 1, 2003.

Financial stocks were easily the biggest drags on the markets Monday, falling more than 6% as a group. Shares of Merrill Lynch (MER) and insurers like Prudential (PRU) declined even further.

Citigroup gave fresh evidence of the pain inflicted on the financial sector, saying it plans to slash 52,000 jobs, or 20% from its peak headcount. The latest job cuts come as Citi looks to cut expenses by 20% and the announcement did little to stop the slide in its shares.

The latest selloff in financial stocks came after a Bernstein Research analyst predicted Goldman Sachs (GS) will post its first quarterly loss since it went public in 1999. Bernstein also slashed its earnings forecast for Morgan Stanley (MS), which like Goldman converted to a bank-holding company from an investment bank amid the height of the credit crisis in September. 

Meanwhile, retailers like Macy's (M) and Nordstrom (JWN) flirted with 52-week lows on new gloom and doom from Target and Lowe's, whose better-than-expected earnings reports were overshadowed by pessimism about the current quarter. Lowe's warned of declining sales while Target halted its stock buyback and said it plans to scale back its new store openings for at least the next four years. 

The markets received little confidence from a G20 financial summit held over the weekend in Washington that failed to produce any coordinated stimulus measures to jolt world economies. Leaders decided not to set concrete goals until a scheduled meeting in April that will likely include President-elect Obama.

Reflecting the lingering economic concerns, crude oil futures plunged below $55 a barrel to close at 22-month lows Monday. The price of a barrel of crude ended down $2.09 to $54.95. 

Corporate Movers

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is considering cutting thousands of jobs on the scale of cuts at Citi and Goldman, the U.K.'s The Sunday Telegraph reported. If JPMorgan slashed 10% of its workforce, as Goldman has, its headcount would decline by about 3,000. 

Genworth Financial (GNW) disclosed it has applied to receive capital from the government's rescue funds following its acquisition of privately-held community bank InterBank.

Lowe's (LOW) beat the Street in the third quarter as earnings fell to 33 cents per share and sales were flat at $11.7 billion. Looking ahead, the retailer sees earnings below analyst expectations in the current quarter and warned same-store sales could decline as much as 10%. 

Target (TGT), the nation's second-largest discount retailer after Wal-Mart (WMT), said third-quarter earnings fell by 24% to 59 cents per share, one penny above analysts' estimates. 

Dell (DELL) was downgraded to "neutral" from "buy" by Merrill Lynch as the brokerage slashed its forecast for PC unit growth for the next two years. 

Data Dump

The Federal Reserve said industrial output recovered in October following its worst plunge in 60 years during September. The government said output rose by a greater-than-expected 1.3% last month. 

The New York Fed's Empire Manufacturing survey fell to -25.43 in November -- its lowest level since the index was introduced seven years ago.