Strong Dollar, Falling Commodity Prices Worry Investors

Stocks remained in lower territory with a strong dollar fueling a sell-off among oil and materials producers that spread to virtually all sectors.  The Dow tumbled more than 200 points to 8597 while Nasdaq lost 50 points to 1808.

On the upside

Southern Energy Homes Inc., a subsidiary of Clayton Homes, offered $2.75 a share to buy Cavalier Homes (Amex: CAV).

An analyst upgraded Spartech Corp. (NYSE: SEH), a maker of thermoplastic products.

On the downside

Shares of Alcoa (NYSE: AA) fell sharply as aluminum prices lost ground.

Casino stocks fell sharply.  Joining the sell-off was Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) and Wynn Resorts (Nasdaq: WYNN).

An analyst downgraded Columbia Banking System (Nasdaq: COLB) which operates commercial banks in the states of Washington and Oregon.

Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) launched its Force.com cloud computing platform, but the stock was unable to resist the sell-off in the overall market.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 6 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks tumbled 18 points to 508.

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