Shares of Visa Inc. V, -4.69% sank 4.9% in afternoon trading Friday, putting them on track for the biggest one-day drop in nine months, after The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Justice Department was investigating whether the company is engaging in anticompetitive practices in the debit-card market. Visa’s stock is pacing the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s DJIA, -0.34% decliners; the stock’s $10.84 price declines is shaving about 71 points off the Dow’s price, which is down 152 points, or 0.5%. The WSJ report, citing people familiar with the matter, said the Justice Department’s antitrust division was gathering information on whether Visa has limited merchants’ ability to route debit-card transactions over card networks that are less expensive than Visa’s. Visa’s stock has now shed 4.1% year to date, while rival Mastercard Inc.’s stock has edged up 0.7% and the Dow has gained 6.9%.
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