Major Averages Close Firmly In The Red On Late-Day Weakness

(RTTNews) - Stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading day on Thursday before coming under pressure in late-day trading and closing mostly lower. Traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves as they continued to digest yesterday's monetary policy announcement as well as some mixed economic data.

While most of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves, substantial weakness was visible among gold stocks. The NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index plunged 4.1 percent, pulling back further off the one-month highs set on Monday.

The weakness among gold stocks came amid a sharp drop by the price of the precious metal, with gold for December delivery tumbling $25.60 to $1,323.70 an ounce.

Housing stocks also showed a significant move to the downside over the course of the session, dragging the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index down by 1.5 percent. With the loss, the index pulled back further off Tuesday's four-month closing high.

Trucking, banking, and electronic storage stocks also came under pressure, with Con-way (CNW) leading the trucking sector lower after reporting disappointing third quarter results.

Meanwhile, networking stocks turned in a strong performance on the day, resulting in a 1.7 percent gain by the NYSE Arca Networking Index. Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) jumped 16.1 percent on optimistic comments from CEO Michel Combes.

The major averages moved to the downside going into the close, ending the day firmly in the red. The Dow fell 73.01 points 0.5 percent to 15,545.75, the Nasdaq dipped 10.91 points or 0.3 percent to 3,919.71 and the S&P 500 slid 6.77 points or 0.4 percent to 1,756.54.