Major Averages Seeing Further Downside In Mid-Day Trading

(RTTNews) - After fluctuating in the first hour of trading, stocks have moved notably lower over the course of the trading day on Monday. The downward move on the day extends the pullback that was seen in the two previous sessions.

Adding to the steep losses posted in the two previous sessions, brokerage stocks have moved sharply lower on the day. The NYSE Arca Broker/Dealer Index has plunged by 2.1 percent, falling to a two-month intraday low.

KCG Holdings (KCG) and Stifel Financial (SF) are turning in two of the brokerage sector's worst performances, falling by 3.5 percent and 3.6 percent, respectively.

Housing stocks are also seeing significant weakness in mid-day trading, dragging the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index down by 2.5 percent. M/I Homes (MHO), KB Home (KBH) and D.R. Horton (DHI) are posting notable losses.

Considerable weakness is also visible among oil service stocks, as reflected by the 1.6 percent drop by the Philadelphia Oil Service Index. The weakness in the sector comes as crude for May delivery is sliding $0.69 to $100.45 a barrel.

Electronic storage, chemical, retail and networking stocks have also come under pressure on the day, moving lower along with most of the other major sectors.

The major averages have seen some further downside in recent trading, hitting new lows for the session. The Dow is down 131.44 points or 0.8 percent at 16,281.27, the Nasdaq is down 47.88 points or 1.2 percent at 4,079.84 and the S&P 500 is down 16.21 points or 0.9 percent at 1,848.88.