Greek financial woes along with efforts by the Chinese government to increase regulation of margin trading sent the markets tumbling to a sharply lower close with Dow collapsing 279 points to 17,826. Nasdaq plummeted 75 points to 4,931.
On the upside
Summit Materials (NYSE: SUM) will acquire a cement plant and seven cement distribution terminals from Lafarge North America.
Mattel (Nasdaq: MAT) reported a smaller than expected loss for the first quarter.
Bloomberg reported that Teva Pharmaceutical (NYSE: TEVA) was exploring the possibility of purchasing Mylan (Nasdaq: MYL).
On the downside
Shares of ForceField Energy (Nasdaq: FNRG) continued falling.
Profit taking weighed down shares of Solazyme (Nasdaq: SZYM).
Bloomberg reported that the Department of Justice was preparing to block the proposed merger of Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) and Time Warner (NYSE: TWC).
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 5 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 1 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 plunged 23 points to 2081. Bitcoin lost $4 to $223.
Markets plummet over global economic concerns
April 17, 2015 at 17:07 PM EDT