11:00AM New York – U.S. stocks reached low for the day as investors worried that credit market turmoil and declining sale will hurt earnings in 2008.

Retailers declined after December retail sales fell 0.4% from November but rose 4.1% from a year ago.

Coldwater Creek (CWTR: chart), women’s apparel retailer, declined 27% or $1.42 to $3.73 after it lowered its outlook for the fourth quarter loss between 16 cents and 20 cents from the earlier projection of break even. The company also said that same store sales are likely to decline in the mid-teen or high-teen in the quarter compared to a year ago.

Williams Sonoma fell 12% after it lowered its fiscal fourth quarter outlook and estimated that a quick turnaround is not likely. Williams (WSM: chart) net revenues for the 9-week holiday period ended December 30, 2007 increased 4.4% to $1.021 billion versus the comparable 9-week holiday period ended December 31, 2006, including a comparable store sales decrease of 0.4%.

Howard Lester chairman and chief executive commented, “Our preliminary estimates for 2008 on a GAAP basis (52 weeks in 2008 versus 53 weeks in 2007) assume a flat to low-single digit decrease in net revenue and a mid-single to high-single digit decrease in diluted earnings per share.”

Citigroup fell $1.95 or 6.5% to $27.15 after it reported a sharply higher loss on subprime and consumer loans related write-down of $18.1 billion.

Citigroup also said that it will sell preferred stocks worth $14.5 billion and lowered its dividend by 41%. Merrill Lynch accepted investment of $6.6 billion from a consortium of investors including $1.2 billion from Mizuho Bank in Japan and funds controlled by Kuwait and Korea. China declined to invest in Citigroup.

Genentech (DNA: chart) reported late evening yesterday that fourth quarter profit increased 6% on 7% rise in sales. In the quarter the revenue jumped to $2.97 billion and earnings increased to $632 million and earnings per share rose to 59 cents from 55 cents a year ago.

State Street (STT: chart) reported that the fourth quarter net income of $223 million or 57 cents per share compared to $309 million or 91 cents per share. The fourth quarter earnings included 71 cents per share charge for legal reserve of $620 million.

9:50AM New York – U.S. stocks traded sharply lower after thirty minutes of trading.

U.S. stocks decline after retail sales decline and huge loss at Citigroup.

Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 99.22 to 12,678.34, Nasdaq lost 24.50 to 2,453.80, and S&P 500 decreased 15.05 to 1,401.59.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for December, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $382.9 billion, a decrease of 0.4% from the previous month, but 4.1% above December 2006.

Total sales for the 12 months of 2007 were up 4.2% from 2006. Total sales for the October through December 2007 period were up 4.9% from the same period a year ago.

The October to November 2007 percent change was revised from a gain of 1.2% to a rise of 1.0%.

Retail trade sales were down 0.4% from November 2007, but were 4.3% above last year.

Gasoline station sales were up 18.5% from December 2006 and sales of non-store retailers were up 12.1% from last December.

Citigroup Inc. (C: chart) reported a net loss for the 2007 fourth quarter of $9.83 billion, or $1.99 per share. Results include $18.1 billion in pre-tax write-downs and credit costs on sub-prime related direct exposures in fixed income markets, and a $4.1 billion increase in credit costs in U.S. consumer primarily related to higher current and estimated losses on consumer loans.

In the fourth quarter Citigroup revenue declined 70% to $7.2 billion and lost $9.833 billion from a profit of $5.12 billion a year ago. Losses per share in the quarter were $1.99 compared to earnings of $1.99 per share.

A rare bright spot in the quarter were international segments. International consumer revenues increased 45%, driven by organic volume growth, the impact of recent acquisitions, a $507 million pre-tax gain on Visa Inc. shares, and a $313 million pre-tax gain on the sale of an ownership interest in Nikko Cordial''s Simplex Investment Advisors. Average deposits and loans increased 21% and 30%, respectively, and investment sales were up 24%.