Closing Update: U.S. Stocks End Sharply Lower; Battered By Economic Data, Spanish Bond Sale

4:12 PM, Apr 4, 2012 -- U.S. stocks tumbled Wednesday, extending yesterday's losses after a lower-than-expected ISM reading and a weak Spanish bond sale reignited concerns over the health of the global economy.

The most recent data point to hit the markets today was the Spanish bond sale, which went out at the low end of estimates with higher yields. Five-year yields climbed 19 basis points to 4.45%, their loftiest level since January.

Stocks were already trending down in pre-market hours, as investors continued to digest the fact that yesterday's Fed minutes brought to light the fact that a "QE3" is highly unlikely.

As the day progressed, stocks continued to slide on economic data. At 8:15 a.m. Eastern, ADP reported that U.S. private employers added 209,000 jobs during March, slightly above the median estimate by A Bloomberg survey of 206,000; a data point that was modestly positive, but was still interpreted as negative by investors.

The downside was given extra impetus around 10:00 am Eastern when the Institute for Supply Management released its services-sector index for March showing a decline to 56% from 57.3% in February.

Commodities fell sharply. Crude-oil futures ended at their lowest in seven weeks after a government weekly inventories report showed an increase nearly five times larger than expected. Crude for May delivery was off $2.54, or 2.4%, to settle at at $101.47 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange; the lowest settlement for a most-active oil contract since Feb. 14.

Gold for June delivery declined $57.90, or 3.5%, to end at $1,614.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, a 12-week low.

In company news, Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) announced that it's cutting 2,000 jobs in hopes of turning into a "smaller, nimbler, more profitable" company. The job cuts are expected to result in roughly $375 million a year in savings as management pursues a plan to "intensify efforts and redeploy resources globally." YHOO shares are down about 1% today.

Dynegy (DYN) shares fell and touched a 52-week low of $0.35 per share after the company said that it has settled all disputes with its creditors. In particular, the company reached an agreement in principle over $2.5 billion of claims against DYN's subsidiary, Dynegy Holdings. Under this deal, the creditors will receive common equity in the reorganized company in lieu of thenew senior secured notes and preferred stock contemplated by the current plan.

Here's where the U.S. markets stood at end-of-day:

Dow Jones Industrial Average down 124.80 (-0.95%) to 13,074.75

S&P 500 down 14.42 (-1.02%) to 1,398.96

NASDAQ Composite down 45.48 (-1.46%) to 3,068.09

GLOBAL SENTIMENT

Nikkei 225 down 2.29%.

Hang Seng Index up 1.31%.

China Shanghai Composite Index up 0.47%.

FTSE 100 down 2.53%.

UPSIDE MOVERS

(+) MDCA, Guides FY12 Revenues above estimates; buys minority stake in Doner.

(+) GKSR, Declares special dividend; raises regular dividend 50%.

(+) HEAT, Heavy volume

DOWNSIDE MOVERS

(-) EPCT, Preclinical research on Hepatitis drug disappoints.

(-) WBMD, Completes $150-million stock buyback priced at $26 a share

(-) TOT, Effort to plug leak hindered by weather.