The failure of House Speaker John Boehner to rally Republican support for his Plan B sent the markets tumbling to a sharply lower open with the Dow plummeting 118 points to 13,192. Nasdaq plunged 42 points to 3008.
On the upside
Pinnacle Entertainment (NYSE: PNK) will pay approximately $869 million to acquire Ameristar Casinos (Nasdaq: ASCA).
Halozyme Therapeutics (Nasdaq: HALO) partnered with Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) to develop and commercialize biologics with recombinant human hyaluronidase enzyme.
Fourth quarter earnings for Tibco Software (Nasdaq: TIBX) topped analyst estimates.
On the downside
Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) reported sharply lower third quarter earnings and announced changes to its service plans. Micron Technology (Nasdaq: MU) widened first quarter losses as revenue fell.
Standard & Poors's cut Alcatel-Lucent's (NYSE: ALU) unsecured debt rating from B to CCC+.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 6 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 7 to 1 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 index dropped 15 points to 1428.
Plan B Failure Sinks Markets
December 21, 2012 at 09:42 AM EST
