Major Averages Climb Off Worst Levels But Remain In Negative Territory

(RTTNews) - While selling pressure has waned from earlier in the session, stocks continue to see moderate weakness in mid-day trading on Monday. The losses on the day come on the heels of the considerable volatility that was seen last week.

The weakness on Wall Street comes amid another sharp drop by the price of crude oil, which has fallen to its lowest levels in almost six years.

Crude for February delivery is currently tumbling $1.71 to $46.65 a barrel after plunging $4.33 or 8.2 percent to $48.36 a barrel last week.

Oil service stocks continue to see substantial weakness on the day amid the drop by the price of crude oil. Reflecting the weakness in the sector, the Philadelphia Oil Service Index has tumbled by 4.1 percent to its lowest levels in well over two years.

Within the oil service sector, Weatherford (WFT) and Oil States (OIS) are posting particularly steep losses, falling by 7.1 percent and 5.9 percent, respectively.

Significant weakness also remains visible among steel stocks, as reflected by the 2.8 percent loss being posted by the NYSE Arca Steel Index. With the loss, the index has fallen to its lowest intraday level in almost a month.

Electronic storage, oil producer, natural gas, and semiconductor stocks also continue to see considerable weakness in mid-day trading.

On the other hand, gold stocks have shown a strong move to the upside on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 2.7 percent. The strength in the sector comes as gold for February delivery is climbing $10.30 to $1,226.40 an ounce.

The major averages have climbed well off their lows for the session but remain stuck in negative territory. The Dow is down 54.04 points or 0.3 percent at 17,683.33, the Nasdaq is down 29.64 points or 0.6 percent at 4,674.42 and the S&P 500 is down 11.15 points or 0.6 percent at 2,033.66.