Stocks slide amid reports of US bombing in Afghanistan
The so-called "mother of all bombs" that was used is the largest non-nuclear bomb in America's inventory.
The major indexes had been little changed in early trading, as investors weighed earnings from the top Wall Street banks and President Donald Trump's comments on the strength of the dollar.
At 1:08 p.m. ET, the Dow was down 93 points, or 0.46%, the S&P 500 was down 9 points, or 0.38%, and the Nasdaq was down 15 points, or 0.27%.
Shares of JPMorgan and Citigroup rose about 1 percent after the two banks reported better-than-expected quarterly profits.
However, Wells Fargo slipped 1.4 percent after reporting a big drop in mortgage banking revenue and Berkshire Hathaway's disclosure that it had reduced its stake in the bank.
The earnings come in the wake of a frenetic rally in bank shares that started after Trump's election as U.S. president on hopes that he would rein in banking regulations and introduce other business friendly policies.
President Donald Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that the dollar "was getting too strong" and that he would like to see interest rates stay low.
However, the impact of the comments was short-lived as the beaten down dollar recovered slightly and gold prices lost some of their luster after gaining for four straight days.
"Despite the rhetoric that comes out of any political event, if you have good economic data and decent earnings, (the market will) overcome the day-to-day dynamics of macro policy and political risk," said Nathan Thooft, senior portfolio manager at Manulife Asset Management in Boston Massachusetts.
All of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were in the red in early afternoon trading. Technology had led earlier gains, and was up for the first time after a nine-day losing streak.
Trading volumes are likely to be weak on Thursday ahead of the Good Friday holiday.