STOCKS ARE RED

Stocks are red and have quickly fallen to their lowest levels of the day.

The Dow is down 61 points, the S&P 500 is down 11 points, and the Nasdaq is down 37 points.

The price of gold is also higher.

It was a busy morning, with stocks in Europe and Russia falling after the U.S. last night announced its most recent round of sanctions against Russia.

Near 11:30 am ET, reports from Interfax said that a Malaysian airlines Boeing 777 crashed near the Russian border.

Here's a intraday chart of the major averages. Note the steep drop around the time of reports regarding the plane crash.

In other news, this morning Microsoft announced plans to lay off up to 18,000 employees, including 12,500 from its recently acquired Nokia unit.

More to come ...