The Bank of England warned of a possible recession in Britain if the country voted to leave the European Union. Domestic markets dropped during the midday with the Dow tumbling 84 points to 17,627. Nasdaq plunged 48 points to 4,712.
On the upside
Bloomberg reported that drug maker Bayer and chemical company BASF are both considering acquiring Monsanto (NYSE: MON).
On the downside
ChemoCentryx (Nasdaq: CCXI) will present at the 2016 Society for Investigational Dermatology Annual Meeting today but profit takers sent the stock price tumbling.
Aegon (NYSE: AEG) reported lower first quarter earnings.
The New York Times reported that Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: VRX) has yet to cut the price of its heart drugs by the 30% that the drug maker promised to hospitals.
Falling memory chip prices weighed down shares of Micron Technology (Nasdaq: MU).
Investors locked in profits on Turtle Beach (Nasdaq: HEAR).
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by nearly 7 to 3 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 dropped 10 points to 2,054. Bitcoin added $1 to $452.