By Geoffrey Rogow NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks pushed to their lowest point of the session near midday Thursday, led by falling metals and energy companies, as gains in the dollar and Treasurys underscored continuing economic uncertainty and prompted a move out of riskier assets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was recently down 166 points, or 1.6%, to 10259. Intel was its weakest component, down 5.4% after Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgraded eight microchip companies, including Intel. Just one of the Dow's 30 components was in the black: Merck, which climbed 1%. The stock market's declines from Wednesday and Thursday have the Dow sitting roughly where it was at the end of last week, having erased more than 160 points worth of gains from Monday and Tuesday. Among other indexes, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite declined 2.4%, while the Standard & Poor's 500 dropped 1.9%. All the S&P 500's categories were in the red. Materials was its worst performing sector, off 3%, while its energy sector was down 2.4%. The categories were hurt by declines in metals and crude oil futures. Stocks at the forefront of the market's decline included Dow components Alcoa and DuPont, while energy firms Pioneer Drilling, off 6.2%, and Dril-Quip, down 6.1%, lead the S&P 500 into the red. Meanwhile, the Russell 2000 index of small-capitalization stocks tumbled 3%, reflecting the move away from those assets perceived as riskier Thursday. Small-caps are widely considered a risky corner of the equities market due to their high volatility and low liquidity. "The question is, are we at a point where investors are pulling back on how much risk they're willing to take or is it just a function of nothing going up in a straight line?" said Jack McPherson, portfolio manager of the Eagle Small Cap Core Value Fund. He said on the institutional side, he has seen endowments and retirement plans with longer-term perspectives more willing to put money back in the market. However, McPherson said his retail clients with a more short-term focus, have been looking more for safety recently. Thursday's trend away from energy and materials firms marks a reversal from what pushed the major stock market indexes to new highs on the year earlier this week. Both sectors have been at the forefront of the market's November gains stemming from an upturn in global economic sentiment and rising oil prices, as well as a slide in the dollar. Oil futures fell below $78 a barrel in New York Thursday. The dollar gained against most key counterparts except the yen as slumping global equity markets, a decline in the price of gold and other commodities, and indications from around the globe of a more restrictive official stance toward capital flows and currency volatility pushed investors into the perceived safety of the U.S. currency. On the economic front, a weekly jobless claims figure that came in nearly as expected failed to offset some of the increased pessimism surrounding the world economy that was weighing on markets. Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak in New York, said that Thursday's economic releases included both bullish and bearish signs for the dollar. Initial claims for unemployment benefits were unchanged from the prior week, which was better than Wall Street's consensus expectation of a 4,000 rise. But the number of continuing claims was also nearly flat at 5.6 million, a disturbingly high number. Because of such readings, Boockvar believes the dollar will remain weak over the long haul. But he added: "The risk trade had become really crowded, so it didn't take a lot to get it to come off a bit. Who knows, we could get a three- to six-month reversal in the dollar, even if it remains in a long-term bear market."

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