Weak jobs report, strong dollar push stocks down at opening

Stocks are down at opening this morning, pushed that way by a worse-than-expected new jobless claims report and a rebounding dollar.

In the first 25 minutes of trading, the Dow is down six-tenths of 1 percent.

The broader S&P 500 is down seven-tenths of 1 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq is down nearly seven-tenths of 1 percent.

We're awaiting the Senate banking committee vote on Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's reappointment. Already, a number of senators have said they will vote against Bernanke, including ranking minority member Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.). Here's a piece on Shelby in today's Post written by my colleague Bob Kaiser.

-- Frank Ahrens
Sign up to get The Ticker on Twitter