Stocks Fall as Dollar Gains

U.S. Market
Stocks were lower this morning as the dollar rose to new highs against the euro and China released mixed economic data.

The dollar hit multiyear highs against the euro, yen and other major currencies today as the ECB continued its bond buying program and strong U.S. economic data raised expectations that the Fed was poised to raise rates sooner rather than later.

Job openings in the U.S. rose 2.4% in January to 5 million, a 14-year high according to the JOLTS report released today.

At midday the Dow and Nasdaq were each down 1.5% while the S&P 500 was off 1.4%.

Stocks on the Move
There was limited corporate news this morning.

Foreign Markets
European markets were lower on the day. The FTSE 100, Paris CAC and Germany’s DAX were odd 1.8%, 0.8% and 0.4% respectively.

Asian shares turned lower after data showed China’s producer price index fell and the country’s urban job creation numbers slowed. The Shanghai Composite fell 0.5%, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.7% while the Hang Seng was off 0.9%.