The markets opened sharply lower with the Dow plummeting 151 points to 14,454 on news that far fewer jobs were added in March than economists had expected. Nasdaq plunged 47 points to 3177.
On the upside
Bargain hunters lifted shares of Exide Technologies (Nasdaq: XIDE), whose stock price plunged yesterday on news of a possible restructuring.
NII Holdings (Nasdaq: NIHD) will sell its business in Peru to Entel for approximately $400 million.
A Seeking Alpha contributor published a third part to an ongoing article stating that memory shortages would benefit Micron Technology (Nasdaq: MU).
On the downside
AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) and Rigel Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: RIGL) reported mixed results from a late stage clinical trial of their rheumatoid arthritis treatment fostamatinib.
F5 Networks (Nasdaq: FFIV) warned that second quarter earnings and revenue would fall short of analyst expectations.
Radware (Nasdaq: RDWR) blamed weaker than expected international sales for lowering its first quarter earnings and revenue guidance.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 7 to 2 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 1 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 index dropped 18 points to 1541.
