Major Averages Close Sharply Lower After Broad Based Sell-Off

(RTTNews) - Reflecting concerns about the outlook for monetary policy, stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the trading session on Thursday. The steep drop on the day extended the notable pullback seen in the previous session.

Most of the major sectors moved notably lower on the day, reflecting another session of broad based weakness on Wall Street.

Substantial weakness was visible among electronic storage stocks, as reflected by the 3.5 percent loss posted by the NYSE Arca Disk Drive Index. With the drop, the index fell to a six-year closing low.

Violin Memory (VMEM) helped lead the storage sector lower, plunging by 26.4 percent after reporting weaker than expected third quarter results.

Natural gas stocks also saw considerable weakness, resulting in a 2.9 percent drop by the NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index. The decrease pulled the index down to its lowest closing level in over five years.

Chesapeake Energy (CHK) posted a particularly steep loss after announcing a private offering of up to $1.5 billion of its new 8.00% Senior Secured Second Lien Notes due 2022.

Biotechnology, health care, railroad, and housing stocks also showed significant moves to the downside, while gold stocks bucked the downtrend amid an increase by the price of the precious metal.

The major averages climbed off their worst levels going into the close but remained firmly in the red. The Dow tumbled 252.01 points or 1.4 percent to 17,477.67, the Nasdaq plunged 85.70 points or 1.7 percent to 5,037.53 and the S&P 500 plummeted 29.89 points or 1.4 percent to 2,049.62.