The markets plunged during the midday with the Dow plummeting 102 points to 16,334 over increasing concerns that earnings will disappoint. Nasdaq tumbled 31 point to 4142.
On the upside
A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended approval of Merck's (NYSE: MRK) blood clot prevention medication vorapaxar. Merck also filed an application to market its advanced melanoma treatment MK-3475.
Rosetta Genomics (Nasdaq: ROSG) signed a master service provider agreement with a global biopharmaceutical.
Genzyme will invest $700 million in Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ALNY) to expand their partnership to develop and commercialize treatments for rare genetic diseases.
On the downside
Motley Fool criticized the press release issued by J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) last week as too vague about the struggling retailer's holiday performance.
Intercept Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ICPT) released additional data from its FLINT clinical trial that revealed lipid abnormalities in OCA-treated patients.
Geron (Nasdaq: GERN) will present financial information at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Franciscco on January 15, 2014.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 7 to 3 on the NYSE and by nearly 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 tumbled 12 points to 1829. Bitcoin held steady at $966.99.
