Unable to ignore recession forever, stocks fall on weak sales data

After another day of sharp declines in the markets, it's beginning to feel like investors just remembered the world is mired in the deepest recession in most peoples' lifetimes. Yesterday, stocks rebounded. Today, the losses stuck.

Today's biggest reminder was a surprisingly low April retails sales reading, but poor quarterly results from Applied Materials (AMAT), a big microchip makers and a bellwether for tech investment, didn't help either. By the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 184 points, or 2.2 percent, to finish the trading session at 8,285.

For more on stocks making moves, be sure to check out BloggingStocks' market wrap-up.