U.S. stocks slide as economic recovery questioned

(MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks were clobbered Wednesday, with the Dow industrials tallying their biggest single-day retreat since June 29, as the Federal Reserve's stimulus plan intensified worries about the economic recovery.

"Unfortunately what the Fed was able to do yesterday was confirm our fears that we're in an economic soft patch, and that they're going to continue with monetary policy that we had in the past," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co.

Bringing it back into the loss column for the year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average /quotes/comstock/10w!i:dji/delayed (DJIA 10,379, -265.42, -2.49%) declined 265.42 points, or 2.5%, to 10,378.83.

Alcoa Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!aa/quotes/nls/aa (AA 10.52, -0.14, -1.31%) led the blue-chip decline that extended to all 30 of the Dow's components, with shares of the aluminum manufacturer down 6.1%.

Data on the domestic front and from overseas did not help bolster sentiment in a market that has for weeks veered between downbeat economic reports and positive corporate results. (more)