Major Averages Posting Modest Gains In Early Trading

(RTTNews) - Stocks are seeing modest strength in early trading on Friday, extending the rally seen late in the previous session. The Dow is moving higher for the sixth consecutive session, climbing to its best intraday level in well over a month.

The early strength on Wall Street comes as traders continue to react positively to yesterday's release of the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting.

The minutes showed that Fed members were concerned about global growth risks and decided it was prudent to wait for additional information before raising interest rates. Combined with recent jobs and trade data, the minutes helped reinforce the view that the Fed will not raise rates later this month and may delay its first rate hike into next year.

Overall buying interest has remained somewhat subdued, however, as traders look ahead to next week's release of earnings news from a number of big name companies.

Nonetheless, gold stocks have shown a substantial move to the upside on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 3.9 percent. The strength in the sector comes as gold for December delivery is climbing $10.40 to $1,154.70 an ounce.

Airline, steel, and biotechnology stocks are also seeing early strength, while some weakness is visible among computer hardware stocks.

Currently, the major averages are posting modest gains on the day. The Dow is up 38.22 points or 0.2 percent at 17,088.97, the Nasdaq is up 21.02 points or 0.4 percent at 4,831.81 and the S&P 500 is up 3.81 points or 0.2 percent at 2,017.24.