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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks tumbled for a fifth straight session on Tuesday, capping the Dow's biggest five-day point loss ever, as fears mounted that the rapidly spreading credit crisis would drag the economy into a deep recession.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday signaled a readiness to lower U.S. interest rates in a dramatic shift to support an economy battered by a financial crisis of "historic dimension."

GREENVILLE, S.C. - Federal agents swept through a chicken processing plant Tuesday, detaining more than 300 suspected illegal immigrants, sending panicked workers running and screaming through the hallways. Worried relatives collected outside, fearful their loved ones would be deported.

WASHINGTON - Americans' retirement plans have lost as much as $2 trillion in the past 15 months — about 20 percent of their value — Congress' top budget analyst estimated Tuesday as lawmakers began investigating how turmoil in the financial industry is whittling away workers' nest eggs.

NEW YORK - The misery worsened on Wall Street Tuesday, with stocks piling on losses late in the session and bringing the two-day decline in the Dow Jones industrials to more than 875 points amid escalating worries about credit markets and the financial sector.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Asian stocks fell about 4 percent, down for a fifth consecutive day, and government bond prices rose on Wednesday as fears of a looming global recession grew with no sign of a coordinated response or an end to the worsening financial meltdown.

WASHINGTON - Frantically trying to stop the bleeding on Wall Street, the Federal Reserve took a first-time step Tuesday to get cash directly to businesses and hinted that interest rates could come down soon. Stocks continued their free fall anyway and hit new five-year lows.

PITTSBURGH - Alcoa Inc., one of the world's largest aluminum producers, on Tuesday reported a 52-percent drop in third quarter profit and said it would conserve cash by suspending its stock buyback program and all non-critical capital projects.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co is likely to get about 75 to 80 percent of Wachovia Corp's deposits, while Citigroup Inc would get the remainder, a person briefed on the matter said on Tuesday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's finance minister Alistair Darling will announce a rescue package for the banking system on Wednesday, a move likely to include a major injection of capital into banks, a government source said.

WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Tuesday that the financial crisis has not only darkened the country's current economic performance but also could prolong the pain.

NEW YORK - The grip on the credit markets loosened just barely on Tuesday after the Federal Reserve said it would buy commercial paper, the unsecured short-term debt that companies sell for their short-term cash needs.

WASHINGTON - Even in the midst of a severe meltdown on Wall Street, Federal Reserve officials at their September meeting believed the risks from weaker growth and higher inflation were roughly equal.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Fast-food company Yum Brands Inc. said Tuesday its third-quarter profit grew 5 percent as surging sales in its overseas operations more than offset a sharp decline in U.S. results and the continued strain from high commodity costs.

DALLAS - With stock markets sinking and fear of recession rising, what's the affluent consumer to do? Neiman Marcus hopes a few of them will escape the grim headlines by splurging on diamonds, Dior and other diversions.