Comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that business growth will slow sent the markets tumbling during the midday with the Dow dropping 94 points to 13,206. Nasdaq plunged 49 points to 2700.

On the upside

Brazilian oil company Petrobras (NYSE: PBR) announced the discovery of a light oil reserve with up to 8 billion barrels of oil.

Although preproduction and restructuring expenses helped Energy Conversion Devices (Nasdaq: ENER) widen first quarter losses, revenue surged to surpass expectations.

Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst James Kumpel upgraded HLTH Corp. (Nasdaq: HLTH) over recent price declines.

On the downside

Hansen Natural (Nasdaq: HANS) disappointed with third quarter revenue and income that fell short of expectations.

NetEase (Nasdaq: NTES) blamed strong competition for a drop in third quarter earnings that missed estimates.

October same store sales for Limited Brands (NYSE: LTD) tumbled 6% as high food and gas prices tempered consumer spending for apparel.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 10 to 9 on both the NYSE and Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks eased a fraction to 776.