Stock indexes sent lower

A WEAK US dollar and increased selling in technology shares knocked stock indexes lower at midday yesterday.

At about 11.45am ET, the Nasdaq composite, down 27.03 to 1372.52, lost just under 2%, while the Dow Jones industrial average, down 75.04 to 8463.36, and Standard & Poor’s 500 index, down 9.40 to 892.18, lost close to 1%.

“There’s no real incentive for people to be in the market right now,” said Peter Green, a market analyst at MKM Partners. “There’s no urge to splurge and not much urge to short that much, although we saw a little of that this week. Basically, no one wants to move much until the new year, so that’s why you don’t see the market doing much.” Markets were under pressure as the dollar continued to slide, edging lower versus the euro and losing more substantially versus the Japanese yen.