A rising dollar and disappointing corporate news pushed stocks lower and Treasurys higher on Thursday on concerns the economy will struggle to recover. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 132.86 points, or 1.27 percent, to end at 10,308.26. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 13.10 points, or 1.18 percent, to 1,096.08. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 26.86 points, or 1.22 percent, to close at 2,180.05. The dollar extended its rally Thursday with the euro pressured by another Greek credit downgrade that sparked fresh concerns over sovereign debt burdens in the euro zone. The greenback also got a tailwind from Federal Reserve comments which suggested it is closer to an exit strategy for its massive stimulus and easy money policies. The euro slumped to $1.4338 at 2200 GMT from $1.4533 in New York Wednesday. Against the Japanese currency, the dollar rose to 89.96 yen from 89.77 yen on Wednesday. In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 64.53 points, or 1.2 percent, at 5,255.73 while Germany's DAX fell 44.15 points, or 0.8 percent, to 5,829.28. The CAC-40 in France was 30.13 points, or 0.7 percent, lower at 3,845.69. In Asia, the Nikkei 225 stock average shed 13.61 points, or 0.1 percent, to 10,163.80, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng slid 264.11 points, or 1.2 percent, to 21,347.63. South Korea's Kospi dropped 1 percent to 1,647.84 and Shanghai' s market tumbled 2.3 percent to 3179.08. Taiwan, Singapore and Indonesia also fell.
