The markets plunged during the midday despite a slight uptick in home sales. The Dow plummeted 103 points to 13,263 while Nasdaq tumbled 24 points to 2650.

On the upside

Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian will purchase a 35% stake in Delta Petroleum (Nasdaq: DPTR) for approximately $684 million.

Temple-Inland (NYSE: TIN) completed the spin-off of its financial services group Guaranty Financial Group and its real estate unit Forestar Real Estate Group.

Oxigene's (Nasdaq: OXGN) ovarian cancer treatment Zybrestat successfully completed the first stage of a midstage clinical trial and will now proceed to the second phase.

On the downside

Shares of mortgage insurer Radian Group (Nasdaq: RDN) fell over news that defaults on insured mortgages soared in November 34.7% to a record high.

Analysts are concerned that Wachovia (NYSE: WB) must write down $1.5 billion in commercial mortgage backed securities in the fourth quarter.

Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) discontinued its online download service for movies.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 2 to 1 on both the NYSE and Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks plunged 10 points to 762.