The biotech sector continued to fall sending the markets plummeting to a sharply lower close with the Dow collapsing 312 points to 16,001. Nasdaq crashed 142 points to 4,543.

On the upside

Republic Airways Holdings (Nasdaq: RJET) reached a tentative agreement with its pilots union for a new three-year contract.

On the downside

Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) introduced new updates to its advertising technology but the stock price fell.

Ignyta (Nasdaq: RXDX) reported updated interim data from Phase 1 clinical trials of entrectinib.

Retreating crude oil prices weighed down shares of Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK).

Epizyme (Nasdaq: EPZM) reported updated data from an ongoing Phase 1 trial of tazemetostat.

Sprint (NYSE: S) will not participate in the next auction of airwaves in early 2016.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 8 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 4 to 1 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 tanked 49 points to 1,881. Bitcoin rose $4 to $236.