NEW YORK - Wall Street shares fell hard Thursday as investors sought cover after a series of big job-slashing announcements that highlighted the weak economic outlook.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 215.45 points (2.51 percent) to close at 8,376.24 after wobbling in and out of positive territory for most of the day.

The Nasdaq composite slid 46.82 points (3.14 percent) to 1,445.56 and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 sank 25.52 points (2.92 percent) to 845.22.

As the market opened, investors learned that telecommunications giant AT&T announced it was cutting 12,000 jobs and slashing capital spending due to the economic downturn.

Job cuts were also announced by media giant Viacom and chemical maker DuPont.

A government report showed a drop in the number of new unemployment claims in the past week, but the level remained high at 509,000.

The latest news is "pointing to the hardest landing, at least so far as employment is concerned, since the early 1980s," said TJ Marta, analyst at RBC Capital Markets.

Sara Kline at Economy.com said the mood also was soured by grim monthly sales reports from retailers, with the exception of discount king Wal-Mart.

"Chain store sales posted the largest year-ago decline on record, falling 2.7 percent in November," she said.

"The disparity between Wal-Mart and other retailers is widening as bargain-hunting remains the trend among consumers. Excluding the discount giant, chain store sales plunged 7.7 percent."

The data underlined the dismal outlook for consumer spending, the main driver of economic activity, Kline said.

"With labor markets deteriorating, access to credit blocked, and wealth broadly lower, consumer spending is set to decline further in the remainder of the year," she said.

Among key stocks, AT&T dropped 3.13 percent to 28.17 dollars after announcing its restructuring plans.

But DuPont rose 0.34 percent to 23.69 dollars as the chemical giant announced cuts of at least 2,500 jobs in North America and Europe due to a realignment in the face of weak demand.

Viacom, the media-entertainment titan, dipped 0.12 percent to 15.99 dollars on announcing cuts of seven percent of its workforce, or 850 positions.

Wal-Mart added 1.34 percent to 55.11 dollars as the retail sector leader announced a better-than-expected monthly sales report. But rival Target fell 1.28 percent to 34.04.

In the auto sector, General Motors slid 16.12 percent to 4.11 dollars and Ford shed 6.67 percent to 2.66 as the auto giants pleaded before Congress for emergency loans to help them survive the economic storm.

Bonds rose as yields fell to fresh record lows amid an investor stampede to ultra-safe investments. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury dropped to 2.570 percent from 2.676 percent Wednesday and that on the 30-year bond eased to 3.084 percent against 3.184 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

"Treasuries haven't seen such low yields in decades," analysts at Briefing.com said. "Stocks were shunned almost entirely across the board."

- AFP /ls