The Dow plunges 800 points as bad economic news piles up fast

U.S. stocks plummeted on Friday on poor economic news. Consumer confidence weakened to the lowest level since November 2023, even as long-run inflation expectations rose to the highest since 1995. The services purchasing managers’ index fell into contractionary territory and January home sales contracted bymore than expected.

The Dow Jones Industrial Index plunged by about 800 points as of 2:30 p.m., the S&P 500 slid 1.6% and the Nasdaq Composite index fell about 2%. Adding to the negative sentiment: UnitedHealth fell almost 7% on news of a Justice Department investigation.

Notable market movers on Friday also included Alibaba, Celsius, Block, Dropbox.

UnitedHealth Group (UNH) is under fire over its Medicare billing practices. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched a civil fraud investigation into how the company records diagnoses that lead to extra payments for its Medicare Advantage plans.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) plans to drop its enforcement case against Coinbase, marking a significant shift in cryptocurrency regulation.

Following the announcement, Coinbase’s (COIN) shares rose in the morning but declined in the afternoon. The SEC had accused Coinbase of operating an unregistered securities exchange and offering unregistered securities.

—Bruce Gil contributed to the article.

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