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 The 13-nation euro hit a fresh record against the dollar
-- rising to $1.4703 -- before falling back. The dollar fell not only against the euro but in Asia following a report that a senior Chinese political figure said China should diversify its $1.43-trillion foreign exchange reserves into the euro and other strong currencies.
The euro's rally put it well above the $1.4554 the currency bought late Tuesday in New York. The previous record high, also set Tuesday, was $1.4571.
The swooning dollar sent oil above $98 per barrel and also pushed gold higher.
Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 187, or 1.37 percent, to 13,490. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 22.30, or 1.46 percent, to 1,502.70, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 22.50, or 1.01 percent, to 2,211.00.
Government bonds jumped as the dollar sank. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite the price, fell to 4.33 percent from 4.37 percent late Tuesday. The yield rose to 4.38 percent in after-hours trading Tuesday.
Light, sweet crude rose $1.37 to $98.07 in premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold prices rose $18 to $841.40 an ounce.
Some corporate news didn't offer Wall Street much reason for cheering. General Motors Corp. reported a $39 billion loss for the third quarter due to an accounting shift. The company warned late Tuesday it would book a $38.6 billion noncash charge largely related to establishing a valuation allowance. A valuation allowance is taken when the future benefit of the deferred tax assets is less likely to be realized.
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 GM's loss came to $68.85 per share, compared with a net loss of $147 million, or 26 cents per share, in the third quarter a year earlier. The stock was off about 7 percent in premarket electronic trading.
In other corporate news, media conglomerate Time Warner Inc. posted a 53 percent decline in its third-quarter earnings from a year earlier when results benefited from tax and investment gains. Results from the parent of HBO, Warner Bros., Time Warner Cable and Time magazine were in line with estimates of analysts polled by Thomson Financial. The stock was little changed in electronic trading.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average closed down 0.94 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.96 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 0.53 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 0.59 percent.
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On the Net:
New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com/
Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com/
[Associated Press; By TIM PARADIS]
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
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