Major Averages Close Mixed Following Choppy Trading Day

(RTTNews) - Following the sharp pullback seen in the previous session, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading day on Friday before closing mixed.

The choppy trading seen for much of the session came as traders seemed somewhat reluctant to make any significant news amid a quiet day on the U.S. economic front.

While most of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves, considerable strength was visible among airline stocks. The NYSE Arca Airline Index surged up by 3.8 percent to its best closing level in over eleven years.

Delta (DAL) helped to lead the airline sector higher, jumping by 5.5 percent after reporting better than expected December revenues.

Computer hardware and banking stocks also moved significantly higher on the day, while gold and telecom stocks showed notable moves to the downside.

While the Dow posted a modest gain on the day, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 closed in the red. The Dow crept up 28.64 points or 0.2 percent to 16,469.99, while the Nasdaq fell 11.16 points or 0.3 percent to 4,131.91, and the S&P 500 edged down 0.61 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 1,831.37.

The major averages all moved lower for the week due largely to the weakness seen on Thursday. The Dow dipped by 0.1 percent, and the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 dropped by 0.6 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.