Wall St falls on global demand worry

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks dropped at the open on Wednesday, extending a three-day slide, as worries over weak economies globally continued to pressure commodities and as U.S. retail sales for December fell short of expectations.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 169.44 points, or 0.96 percent, to 17,444.24, the S&P 500 lost 16.72 points, or 0.83 percent, to 2,006.31 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 46.84 points, or 1 percent, to 4,614.66.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)