NEW YORK » A period of relative calm on Wall Street ended yesterday as stocks tumbled in the final hour of trading on growing investor anxiety ahead of the government's November employment report.

The major indexes each slid more than 2.5 percent, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which dropped 216 points after rising in seven of the last eight sessions.

Investors are worried that today's employment report would show a further deterioration in the job market; employers have already cut 1.2 million jobs in the first 10 months of the year, leaving the unemployment rate at a 14-year high of 6.5 percent. Economists expect the U.S. Labor Department will report that the jobless rate rose to 6.8 percent in November and that companies cut another 320,000 jobs.

The pullback followed a decent run on Wall Street. Broad indexes like the Standard & Poor's 500 index have finished with gains in seven of the last nine sessions.

Monday was the biggest exception, when the major indexes plunged more than 7 percent at the prospects of a punishing recession.

The Dow industrials ended down 215.45, or 2.51 percent, at 8,376.24.

Broader stock indicators also declined. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 25.52, or 2.93 percent, to 845.22, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 46.82, or 3.14 percent, to 1,445.56.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 14.23, or 3.14 percent, to 439.53.

The number of stocks that fell on the New York Stock Exchange outpaced those that rose by nearly 3 to 1. Consolidated volume came to 5.7 billion shares compared with 6.01 billion shares traded Wednesday.

Bond prices rose again, sending yields to record lows as investors again sought the safety of government debt—even if the returns are meager. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 2.56 from 2.67 percent late Wednesday.

The yield on the three-month T-bill, considered one of the safest investments, fell to below 0.01 percent from 0.02 percent late Wednesday.

The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.

Retailers were the standouts of the session, though the market's late decline pared their gains. The advances came, analysts said, amid relief that huge declines in November sales weren't worse. The Goldman Sachs-International Council of Shopping Centers sales index fell 2.7 percent to its lowest reading since its inception in 1969.

Many shoppers looking for discounts turned to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. The world's largest retailer posted a 3.4 percent increase in sales. In the U.S., grocery sales helped results. Wal-Mart rose 73 cents to $55.11.

Light, sweet crude fell $3.12 to settle at $43.67 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude, which soared to a record $147.27 in July, is now trading at its lowest levels in four years, having plunged in response to the weakening global economy.