The falling euro sent the markets tumbling to a sharply lower open with the Dow plummeting 156 point to 12,346. Nasdaq plunged 31 points to 2807.

On the upside

Transtelco will conduct a trial of Alcatel-Lucent’s (NYSE: ALU) CloudBand solution featuring higher connection speeds and bandwidth.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Patriot Coal (NYSE: PCX) was exploring refinancing options with Blackstone Group.

Recon Technology (Nasdaq: RCON) announced a contract valued at more than $3.02 million to provide China National Petroleum with the Emerson PCS & SIS Systems in its South Yolotan Gas Field Project.

On the downside

Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) disappointed with lower first quarter earnings that fell short of analyst expectations and forecast lower current quarter revenue below estimates.

Shares of Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) fell ahead of its earnings release after market close and the anticipated layoff of 25,000 employees.

Qihoo 360 Technology (NYSE: QIHU) reversed year ago losses to post a better than expected profit for the first quarter as revenue surged but the stock price fell.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 4 to 1 on the NYSE and by a nearly 7 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks tumbled 7 points to 752.