Economic slowdown fears send markets plummeting

Weak economic data renewed fears of an economic slowdown sending the markets plummeting during the midday with the Dow diving 416 points to 15,898. Nasdaq collapsed 99 points to 4,127.

On the upside

Ingredion (NYSE: INGR) will pay a premium of approximately $241.4 million in cash to acquire Penford (Nasdaq: PENX).

Shares of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: BCRX) and NewLink Genertics (Nasdaq: NLNK) rose after a second healthcare worker who treated Thomas E. Duncan was diagnosed with Ebola.

Orexigen Therapeutics (Nasdaq: OREX) has earned $100 million in milestone payments from Takeda Pharmaceuticals for the obesity treatment Contrave.

On the downside

Shares of Forward Pharma (Nasdaq: FWP) plunged in its market debut.

Falling crude oil price weighed down share of Petrobras (NYSE: PBR).

Fitch Ratings warned that Greek banks continued to be in precarious financial situations sending shares of National Bank of Greece (NYSE: NBG) tumbling.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 7 to 2 on the NYSE and by nearly 7 to 3 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 plummeted 52 points to 1825. Bitcoin fell $15 to $388.