Major Averages Close Slightly Higher After Seeing Early Weakness

(RTTNews) - Stocks showed a substantial recovery over the course of the trading session on Friday after coming under pressure in morning trading. The volatility that was seen on the day extended the choppy trading that was seen throughout the week.

While many of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves, considerable weakness remained visible in the networking sector. The NYSE Arca Networking Index fell by 1.6 percent after ending the previous session at a two-year closing high.

Ciena (CIEN) helped to lead the networking sector lower, falling by 4.6 percent, while Infinera (INFN) and Juniper Networks (JNPR) also posted notable losses.

Health insurance stocks also ended the day notable lower, resulting in a 1.4 percent drop by the Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payor Index. The pullback by the index came after it reached a record closing high on Thursday.

Meanwhile, gold stocks showed a significant turnaround over the course of the session, with the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index rising by 1.3 percent after falling as much as 2.3 percent.

Airline stocks also turned in a strong performance on the day, as reflected by the 1.3 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Airline Index. With the gain, the index reached a new six-year intraday high.

The major averages eventually ended the session slightly higher. The Dow inched up 3.22 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 15,558.83, the Nasdaq rose 7.98 points or 0.2 percent to 3,613.16 and the S&P 500 edged up 1.40 points or 0.1 percent to 1,691.65.

For the week, the Nasdaq advanced by 0.7 percent, while the Dow edged up by 0.1 percent and the S&P 500 was nearly unchanged.