Deutsche Bank's headquarters, Frankfurt

Bank worries sank stocks today in New York, while retail data for December, was worse than expected.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, is in its sixth straight day of losses and has fallen 260 points, off 3.1% at 8189.

Dow component Citigroup tumbled 17% after announcing it would sell the majority stake in its brokerage unit for $2.7 billion to Morgan Stanley. It is also reported to be planning to shrink its operation by a third, ending its so-called "financial supermarket" model that has long been the fulcrum of Citi's business strategy - - basically offering the customer a one-stop shop.

In other woes for the banking sector, Deutsche Bank reported that it would post a fourth-quarter loss of €4.8 billion ($6.33 billion). Morgan Stanley analysts said in a research note that HSBC may have to raise as much as $30 billion and cut ts dividend in half.

Finfacts Report: US retail sales fell 2.7% in December - down 9.8% in 2008; Import prices plunged 9.3%  in 2008 - a record decline

The S&P 500 has dipped 3.34% and the Nasdaq is off 3%.

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Germany's biggest bank, said it currently anticipates a loss after taxes in the region of €4.8 billion for the fourth quarter 2008. This development reflects exceptional market conditions, which severely impacted results in the sales and trading businesses, most notably in Credit Trading including its proprietary trading business, Equity Derivatives and Equities Proprietary Trading.

The bank says the result also reflects exposure reduction and other de-risking measures, a significant increase in provisions against certain of our monoline counterparties, and certain other exceptional gains and charges, including reorganisation charges. In Asset and Wealth Management, the bank anticipates a fourth quarter loss driven by an impairment charge on intangible assets related to DWS Scudder and substantial injections into money market funds.

For the full year 2008, the bank currently anticipates a loss after tax in the region of €3.9 billion.

Dr. Josef Ackermann, Chairman of the Deutsche Bank Management Board, said: "We are very disappointed at this fourth quarter result, which leads to a loss for the year. The exceptionally difficult market environment of the quarter exposed some weaknesses in our platform, and we have determined a number of measures to address these weaknesses. Implementation of these measures is already underway.

Our capital strength, which we have successfully maintained, allowed us to withstand these extremely difficult market conditions and to take necessary steps to de-risk our platform. We have substantially reduced our exposures in leveraged finance, commercial real estate and other key credit market exposures, and expect no further material negative impact from these areas. We have scaled back or exited trading strategies most affected by market turbulence. We have significantly reduced trading assets, and thus reduced balance sheet leverage."