Major Averages Close Firmly Negative After Seeing Early Strength

(RTTNews) - After moving modestly higher in morning trading, stocks showed a substantial move to the downside over the course of the trading day on Wednesday. The major averages pulled back well off their highs for the session, sliding firmly into negative territory.

Gold stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the session, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 3.2 percent. With the loss, the index ended the session at its worst closing level in almost six years.

The weakness among gold stocks came amid a decrease by the price of the precious metal, with gold for December delivery falling $6.20 to $1,245.50 an ounce.

Substantial weakness also emerged among oil service stocks, as reflected by the 3.1 percent loss posted by the Philadelphia Oil Service Index. Crude for December delivery tumbled $1.97 to $80.52 a barrel, contributing to the weakness in the sector.

Transportation stocks also came under pressure on the day after rising sharply in recent sessions. The Dow Jones Transportation Average dropped by 2.1 percent after ending the previous session at its best closing level in almost a month.

Natural gas, networking, brokerage, and software stocks also saw notable weakness, moving lower along with most of the other major sectors.

The major averages saw further downside in the final hour of trading, closing near their worst levels of the day. The Dow tumbled 153.49 points or 0.9 percent to 16,461.32, the Nasdaq slid 36.63 points or 0.8 percent to 4,382.85 and the S&P 500 dropped 14.17 points or 0.7 percent to 1,927.11.