Major Averages Tumble To Worst Closing Levels In A Month

(RTTNews) - With another sharp drop by the price of oil weighing on the markets, stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the trading day on Friday. The losses on the day dragged the major averages down to their lowest closing levels in a month.

Most of the major sectors showed significant moves to the downside on the day, reflecting broad based weakness on Wall Street.

Steel stocks posted particularly steep losses, dragging the NYSE Arca Steel Index down by 3.3 percent. With the drop, the index fell to its worst closing level in over five years.

The weakness among steel stocks partly reflected concerns about the outlook for demand following the disappointing Chinese production data.

Considerable weakness was also visible among chemical stocks, as reflected by the 2.9 percent loss posted by the Dow Jones Chemicals Index. Dow Chemical (DOW) and Eastman (EMN) turned in two of the sector's worst performances.

Defense stocks also showed a substantial move to the downside on the day, dragging the Philadelphia Defense Sector Index down by 2.9 percent to its lowest closing level in over a month.

Esterline Technologies (ESL) helped to lead the defense sector lower, with the aerospace and defense supplier tumbling by 11.8 percent after reporting disappointing fourth quarter results.

Brokerage, telecom, computer hardware, and energy stocks also saw notable weakness, reflecting the broad based selling pressure.

The major averages saw further downside going into the close of trading, finishing the day at their lows for the session. The Dow plummeted 315.51 points or 1.8 percent to 17,280.83, the Nasdaq tumbled 54.57 points or 1.2 percent to 4,653.60 and the S&P 500 plunged 33.00 points or 1.6 percent to 2,002.33.

For the week, the major averages all posted steep losses. The Nasdaq slumped by 2.7 percent, while the Dow and the S&P 500 dove 3.8 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively.