JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: In financial news, there is fresh evidence that jittery markets can nose dive on what may be positive news for millions of American workers. A new government report shows wages and benefits jumped in the first quarter of the year, making their biggest gains since the early '90s. The markets thought that smelled like inflation. The Dow dropped early on and is now down about 150 points, with the Nasdaq up about 35. Joining us now is CNNfn's Lisa Leiter at the Chicago Board of Trade -- Lisa.</s>LISA LEITER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Jeanne. Well, this morning what the Gross Domestic Product, the measure of economic growth in the first quarter, came out, it came in at 5.4 percent. That was the headline number. It was weaker than expected. But the inflation story is what traders here were really focused on, and that came in much stronger than expected. What rattled the markets was the inflation indicator in that GDP report. It came in, it's biggest rise in three years, a very strong number there, very worrisome. Consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of economic growth, came in strong as well, it's biggest rise in seven years there. The second report that really had Wall Street worried this morning was the Employment Cost Index. That's a measure of how much it costs businesses to employ workers, and that came in at its fastest pace in 11 years, up 1.4 percent. So that's also one of Alan Greenspan's favorite economic indicators. It's one of the broadest measures of labor costs. And, of course, Alan Greenspan is very worried about the tight labor market, about the shortage of skilled workers, and whether that might force businesses to raise wages in order to lure those workers -- Jeanne.</s>MESERVE: Lisa, thanks so much.
Dow Dives on Inflation Fears