Crude oil prices fell below $47 per barrel to weigh the markets down to a sharply lower open with the Dow plummeting 136 points to 17,502. Nasdaq plunged 49 points to 4,785.
On the upside
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force included Exact Sciences' (Nasdaq: EXAS) Cologuard as one of several colorectal cancer screening tests.
Cavium (Nasdaq: CAVM) will acquire QLogic (Nasdaq: QLGC) in a transaction valued at approximately $1.36 billion.
Nu Skin Enterprises (NYSE: NUS) received a $210 million strategic investment from Ping An ZQ China Growth Opportunity Limited.
On the downside
Tonix Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: TNXP) priced its public offering of 5 million common shares at the discounted price of $2.00 per share.
Korn/Ferry International (NYSE: KFY) reported sharply lower fourth quarter earnings and forecast current quarter results below expectations prompting a downgrade.
TETRA Technologies (NYSE: TTI) priced its public offering of 10 million common shares at the discounted price of $5.50 per share.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 4 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 4 to 1 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 tumbled 18 points to 2,052. Bitcoin leaped $38 to $719.
