A sharp 9.2% drop in new home sales sent the markets tumbling during the midday with the Dow plummeting 152 points to 16,278. Nasdaq dropped 34 points to 4,468.

On the upside

DreamWorks Animation (Nasdaq: DWA) swung to a greater than expected profit for the fourth quarter as revenue climbed.

Ixia (Nasdaq: XXIA) reported sharply higher fourth quarter earnings that beat analyst expectations as revenue rose and announced plans to repurchase up to $25 million of common stock.

Fourth quarter earnings and revenue surged for Adeptus Health (NYSE: ADPT) to surpass expectations.

On the downside

Memorial Resource Development (Nasdaq: MRD) disappointed with lower fourth quarter earnings and revenue.

Shares of Hertz (NYSE: HTZ) dropped after rival Avis (Nasdaq: CAR) posted a quarterly loss.

Fourth quarter earnings plunged for New York Mortgage Trust (Nasdaq: NYMT) to miss analyst expectations by a wide margin.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by more than 7 to 5 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 tumbled 17 points to 1,903 Bitcoin added $2 to $423.