Euro zone concerns along with a surprise decline in pending home sales sent the markets tumbling to a sharply lower close with the Dow plummeting 160 points to 12,419. Nasdaq sank 33 points to 2837.

On the upside

Bargain hunters lifted shares of VeriFone Systems (NYSE: PAY).

Four clients extended their contracts with FuelCell Energy (Nasdaq: FCEL).

EnerSys (NYSE: ENS) reported sharply higher fourth quarter earnings.

On the downside

CRT Capital Group and UBS both downgraded Patriot Coal (NYSE: PCX).

A Seeking Alpha contributor wrote that EXCO Resources (NYSE: XCO) was a good stock to short.

Investors locked in profits of USG (NYSE: USG) whose stock price rose yesterday after Longbow upgraded building materials company.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of 6 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 7 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks plummeted 15 points to 762.