The markets wrapped up another ugly day for stocks and exchange traded funds (ETFs) this afternoon.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 2%, says Tim Paradis of the Associated Press, and it was down more than 300 points. The Nasdaq fell 1.9% and the S&P 500 dropped 2.9%.
Things today got off to a decent start, but that was quickly unraveled after the Philadelphia Federal Reserve said its survey of regional manufacturing activity registered at -20.9 from a revised reading of -1.6 in December.
That news was only followed by more bad news from the homebuilding and real estate sectors: housing starts were down and the building of new homes dropped 8% last month.