Major Averages Remain Firmly In The Red In Mid-Day Trading

(RTTNews) - After falling sharply at the start of trading, stocks continue to see substantial weakness in mid-day trading on Monday. With the weakness on the day, the Dow has slid into negative territory for the year.

Most of the major sectors have moved notably lower over the course of the session, reflecting broad based weakness on Wall Street.

Brokerage stocks continue to turn in some of the market's worst performances, dragging the NYSE Arca Broker/Dealer Index down by 2.1 percent. E*Trade (ETFC), Charles Schwab (SCHW) and Piper Jaffray (PJC) are posting steep losses.

Considerable weakness is also visible among steel stocks, as reflected by the 2.1 percent loss being posted by the NYSE Arca Steel Index. With the drop, the index has fallen to its lowest intraday level in nearly three months.

Semiconductor, airline, energy, and banking stocks are also seeing significant weakness, while utilities stocks are among the few groups bucking the downtrend.

In recent trading, the major averages have climbed off their worst levels of the day, but they remain firmly in the red. The Dow is down 193.95 points or 1.1 percent at 17,752.73, the Nasdaq is down 62.34 points or 1.2 percent at 5,018.16 and the S&P 500 is down 22.82 points or 1.1 percent at 2,078.67.