Crude oil prices dropped below $30 per barrel to send the markets plummeting with the Dow collapsing 357 points to 16,021. Nasdaq crashed 110 points to 4,504.
On the upside
Alon Blue Square Israel (NYSE: BSI) received another offer to purchase its holdings in Blue Square Real Estate.
Code Rebel (Nasdaq: CDRB) entered an agreement to merge with Aegis Identity Software.
Rising gold prices lifted shares of Harmony Gold (NYSE: HMY).
On the downside
A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel issued a negative assessment of Sarepta Therapeutics' (Nasdaq: SRPT) Duchenne muscular dystrophy treatment eteplirsen.
Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) reported better than expected earnings for the fourth quarter but the chipmaker warned of lower margins in the current quarter.
Citigroup (NYSE: C) reported sharply higher fourth quarter earnings on lower legal expenses but the stock price fell along with the markets.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 13 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 10 to 1 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 plummeted 35 points to 1,885. Bitcoin plunged $36 to $393.
