New York -- U.S. stock indexes fell more than 1 percent Tuesday after Standard & Poor's threatened to downgrade debt securities backed by subprime mortgages.

A speech by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke -- in which he said markets still wrongly spiked simply because of economic news traders considered good or bad -- added to the decline.

Just before his speech, the U.S. dollar fell to a record low against the euro before recovering.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 148.27 points, or 1.09 percent, to close at 13,501.70. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index shed 21.73 points, or 21.73 percent, at 1,510.12.

On the New York Stock Exchange, 769 stocks gained and 2,549 declined, on volume of 3.3 billion shares traded.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index lost 30.86 points, or 1.16 percent, at 2,639.16.

In London, the FTSE 100 index closed down 81.80 points, or 1.22 percent, at 6,630.90.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 9.31 points, or 0.05 percent, to close at 18,252.67.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose 29/32, yielding 5.04 percent, while the 30-year bond was up 1 21/32, yielding 5.132 percent.

The U.S. dollar fell to 122.97 yen from 123.40 yen in New York late Monday. The euro, in U.S. dollars, moved to $1.3730 from $1.3622. It had hit a record high of $1.3740 before falling back.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International.