Major Averages Climb Off Lows But Remain In The Red

(RTTNews) - After coming under pressure earlier in the session, stocks remain mostly negative in mid-day trading on Thursday. The losses on the day extend a recent pullback by the markets, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq moving lower for the fourth straight day.

While many of the major sectors have climbed well off their worst levels of the day, substantial weakness remains visible among gold stocks. The NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index is down by 2.5 percent after ending the previous session at its best closing level in almost two months.

The pullback by gold stocks comes amid a steep drop by the price of the precious metal, with gold for June delivery plunging $30.60 to $1,179.40 an ounce.

Biotechnology stocks also continue to see significant weakness in mid-day trading, as reflected by the 1.7 percent loss being posted by the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index. With the drop, the index has fallen to a two-month intraday low.

Celgene (CELG) is turning in one of the biotech sector's worst performances after reporting better than expected first quarter earnings but on weaker than expected revenues.

Utilities, networking, and brokerage stocks are also seeing continued weakness on the day, although selling pressure has waned from earlier in the session.

Currently, the major averages remain stuck in the red, although they are off their worst levels of the day. The Dow is down 78.64 points or 0.4 percent at 17,956.89, the Nasdaq is down 45.22 points or 0.9 percent at 4,978.42 and the S&P 500 is down 10.47 points or 0.5 percent at 2,096.38.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Thursday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index plunged by 2.7 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropped by 0.9 percent.