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Good morning. Today is Friday, December 16th, and I'm your host Julie Morgan.

Our top stories.

A major sell-off on Wall Street.

Southwest Airlines reaches a deal with the union, an update on the major announcement from former President Trump.

EGO is laying off workers, and the retail sector and Novavax are in our day watch.

Wurries about the future of Federal Reserve Policy intensified on Thursday, fueling a substantial

sell-off on Wall Street.

This was exacerbated by weaker than expected economic data, including

retail sales stats that pointed to a sluggish start to the holiday shopping season.

The NASDAQ finished down 3.2%. The S&P 500 ended down 2.5% and the Dow closed down 2.3% with the decline the

S&P 500 closed below 3,900 for the first time since November 9th.

All 11 S&P sectors ended in the red, including deeper than 3% declines in

communication services, infootech, and materials.

Energy held up better than most of the other segments, ending lower by about 0.5%.

Leo Nellison is a Seeking alpha contributor with BN capital. He said the markets are currently getting a reality check and Wednesday's Fed press conference made clear that the number one priority is to get inflation back to normal.

On the economic front, investors also digested a disappointing retail sales report.

The figure slipped 0.6% in November compared to the 0.2% drop that economists had expected.

Core sales also fell surprising experts who had projected an increase.

Turning to the labor market, weekly jobless claims fell 20,000 in the most recent report,

dropping to a level of 211,000.

...