Stocks Remain Mostly Negative In Mid-Day Trading - U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - After ending the previous session modestly lower, stocks have seen some further downside during trading on Wednesday. The major averages have all slid firmly into negative territory.

In recent trading, the major averages have climbed off their worst levels of the day. The Dow is down 74.29 points or 0.4 percent at 20,577.01, the Nasdaq is down 30.43 points or 0.5 percent at 5,836.34 and the S&P 500 is down 10.38 points or 0.4 percent at 2,343.40.

The weakness on Wall Street reflects lingering geopolitical concerns as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

On the U.S. economic front, the Labor Department released a report showing an unexpected decline in import prices in the month of March.

The Labor Department said import prices dipped by 0.2 percent in March after climbing by a revised 0.4 percent in February.

The decrease came as a surprise to economists, who had expected import prices to inch up by 0.1 percent compared to the 0.2 percent increase originally reported for the previous month.

Meanwhile, the report said export prices rose by 0.2 percent in March following a 0.3 percent increase in February. Export prices had been expected to tick up by 0.1 percent.

The economic calendar picks up in the coming days, including with the release of some key data while the markets are closed on Friday.

Reports on retail sales, producer and consumer prices, and import and export prices may attract attention later this week.

On the earnings front, financial giants Citigroup (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and Wells Fargo (WFC) are due to report their quarterly results on Thursday.

Steel stocks have shown a substantial move to the downside on the day, dragging the NYSE Arca Steel Index down by 4 percent. With the drop, the index has fallen to its lowest intraday level in over three months.

Considerable weakness is also visible among railroad stocks, as reflected by 1.7 percent slump by the Dow Jones Railroads Index. Greenbrier (GBX) and Trinity Industries (TRN) are turning in two of the sector's worst performances.

Telecom, brokerage, and semiconductor stocks are also seeing notable weakness, moving lower along with most of the other major sectors.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index slumped by 1 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index advanced by 0.9 percent.

The major European markets also finished the day mixed. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index edged down by 0.2 percent, the German DAX Index inched up by 0.1 percent and the French CAC 40 Index closed just above the unchanged line.

In the bond market, treasuries are seeing further upside following the rally seen in the previous session. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 1.6 basis points at 2.282 percent.