Dow Falls To Nearly Six-Month Closing Low

(RTTNews) - Stocks moved notably lower over the course of the trading day on Monday, extending the downward move seen over the past several sessions. With the drop, the Dow ended the session at its lowest closing level in almost six months.

The weakness on Wall Street came on the heels of a sell-off by Chinese stocks, with the Shanghai Composite Index plunging 345.35 points or 8.5 percent to 3,725.56.

Trepidation ahead of this week's Federal Reserve meeting also weighed on stocks, as the central bank is due to announce its latest monetary policy decision on Wednesday.

After seeing some early strength, gold stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the trading day, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 4.5 percent. With the drop, the index ended the session at its lowest closing level in over twelve years.

The sell-off by gold stocks came despite an increase by the price of the precious metal, as gold for August delivery climbed $10.40 to $1,096.40 an ounce.

Substantial weakness was also visible among airline stocks, as reflected by the 3.5 percent loss posted by the NYSE Arca Airline Index. The drop pulled the index down to a nearly nine-month closing low.

Republic Airways (RJET) posted a particularly steep loss, plunging by 55.7 percent after warning of weaker than expected second quarter results.

Energy stocks also came under pressure, moving lower along with the price of crude oil. With crude for September delivery sliding $0.75 to $47.39 a barrel, the NYSE Arca Oil & Gas Index fell by 2.2 percent.

Software, brokerage, networking, and internet stocks also saw considerable weakness on the day, while utilities stocks were among the few groups to buck the downtrend.

The major averages ended the session firmly in negative territory but off their worst levels of the day. The Dow fell 127.94 points or 0.7 percent to 17,440.59, the Nasdaq tumbled 48.85 points or 1 percent to 5,039.78 and the S&P 500 slid 12.01 points or 0.6 percent to 2,067.64.