Dow Ends Over 350 Points Lower

Dow ends more than 360 points lower as U.S. stocks tumble

Claman on Call: FBN’s Liz Claman with an after-hours web exclusive on the markets, oil prices and utilities and tech stocks.

Heavy selling puts all three major averages in a freefall and much of it happenedin the final hour of trade. The Dow tanking 364 points meaning the Dow has lost 1,302 points since the start of 2016. The S&P losing 48 points and the Nasdaq shedding 159 points--all three blowing out their 3 month lows.

What happened? Part of it was the culprit of late: oil which put pressure on stocks, making a sharp u-turn after a report showed huge inventory builds for the week in both gasoline and distillate supplies. Oil went from trading higher by more than four percent to ending the session up one-tenth of one percent at $30.48 a barrel. The small gain still managed to snap oil's seven-day losing streak.

Stocks that really got smacked: let's look at five names that accounted for nearly half of today's triple-digit selloff -- Goldman Sachs, Home Depot, Boeing, Disney, and United Health Group.

Recent high-flyer Amazon was no help. The online retailing giant plunging nearly six percent on no particular news. But the selling could reflect nervous investors who are booking profits.

Amazon was the number two performer in the S&P 500 last year with a gain of 118 percent.

More tears in the tech world -- Twitter falling for the 8th day in a row to mark its longest string of losses in more than a year and a half. Twitter touching a new lifetime low to end the day at $18.68, down nearly five percent.

So what worked? Utilities were the calm in the storm today --- the only sector in the green. Duke Energy, Conedison, and Southern Company managing to avoid the carnage ravaging the rest of the market.