Major Averages Close In The Red After Seeing Early Strength

(RTTNews) - After failing to sustain an early upward move, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading day on Monday before closing modestly lower. The losses on the day partly offset the strong upward move seen last Friday.

While many of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves, significant weakness was visible among electronic storage stocks. The NYSE Arca Disk Drive Index fell by 1.9 percent to its lowest closing level in almost two months.

Hutchinson Technology (HTCH) and SanDisk (SNDK) turned in two of the storage sector's worst performances, tumbling by 5.2 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively.

Biotechnology stocks also came under considerable selling pressure, dragging the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index down by 1.5 percent. ImmunoGen (IMGN) helped to lead the sector lower, plunging by 8 percent to a three-year closing low.

Transportation and networking stocks also saw notable weakness on the day, while gold stocks showed a strong move back to the upside along with the price of the precious metal.

With gold for December delivery climbing $14.40 to $1,207.30 an ounce, the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index jumped by 2 percent.

The major averages ended the day in the red but well off their lows for the session. The Dow edged down 17.78 points or 0.1 percent to 16,991.91, the Nasdaq fell 20.82 points or 0.5 percent to 4,454.80 and the S&P 500 slipped 3.08 points or 0.2 percent to 1,964.82.