Markets plummet over rate concerns

Concerns that the Federal Reserve would cite nation's strong job market for raising interest rates sent the markets plummeting during the midday with the Dow collapsing 258 points to 17,877. Nasdaq plunged 49 points to 4,933.

On the upside

The Wall Street Journal reported that Life Time Fitness (NYSE: LTM) was engaged in negotiations with two separate groups to take the company private.

Calithera Biosciences (Nasdaq: CALA) secured the exclusive worldwide rights to research, develop and commercialize TransTech Pharma's hexokinase II inhibitors.

Forbes contributor Elaine Schattner noted that March was colorectal cancer awareness month and highlighted the benefits of Exact Sciences' (Nasdaq: EXAS) noninvasive screening test Cologuard.

On the downside

A Food and Drug Administration official questioned the reliability of recent study results released by Orexigen (Nasdaq: SSH) indicating that its obesity treatment Contrave reduced the risk of heart attacks.

Shares of MaxPoint (NYSE: MXPT) fell on its first trading day.

Checkpoint Systems (NYSE: CKP) swung to a profit for the fourth quarter but revenue fell and the company forecast full year earnings and revenue below expectations.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 6 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 2 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 plunged 27 points to 2073. Bitcoin eased $1 to $270.
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