Major Averages Reaching New Highs For The Session

(RTTNews) - After moving sharply higher earlier in the session, stocks continue to turn in a strong performance in mid-day trading on Thursday. With the rally on the day, the Dow has reached its best intraday level in well over two months.

Computer hardware stocks continue to see considerable strength in mid-day trading, with the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index advancing by 1.8 percent.

Lexmark (LXK) and Logitech (LOGI) are turning in two of the hardware sector's best performances, jumping by 2.4 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively.

Significant strength is also visible among software stocks, as reflected by the 1.7 percent gain being posted by the Dow Jones Software Index. Industry giant Microsoft (MSFT) is up by 2.2 percent.

Commercial real estate stocks are also moving notably higher on the day, driving the Morgan Stanley REIT Index up by 1.4 percent.

Tobacco, airline, and internet stocks are also turning in strong performances in mid-day trading, while weakness has emerged among oil service stocks.

The major averages have seen some further upside in recent trading, reaching new highs for the session. The Dow is up 176.33 points or 1 percent at 18,236.82, the Nasdaq is up 54.37 points or 1.1 percent at 5,036.06 and the S&P 500 is up 17.54 points or 0.8 percent at 2,116.02.