Nasdaq And S&P 500 Close Higher For Third Straight Session

(RTTNews) - Stocks moved notably higher over the course of the trading day on Monday, extending the strong upward move seen last Friday. The gains on the day continued the recent recovery by the markets, with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 closing higher for the third consecutive session.

While most of the major sectors moved to the upside, airline stock posted particularly strong gains on the day. The NYSE Arca Airline Index surged up by 3.5 percent, climbing further off the nearly eight-month closing low it set last Monday.

Hawaiian Airlines parent Hawaiian Holdings (HA), United Continental (UAL) and Southwest (LUV) turned in some of the sector's best performances.

Gold stocks also saw considerable strength, moving higher along with the price of the precious metal. With gold for December delivery climbing $5.70 to $1,244.70 an ounce, the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index jumped by 2.2 percent.

Significant strength was also visible among housing stocks, as reflected by the 2.2 percent gain posted by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index. Lennox (LII) led the sector higher after reporting better than expected third quarter earnings.

Retail, semiconductor, oil service, and utilities stocks also saw notable strength on the day, reflecting broad based buying interest.

The major averages all closed in positive territory, although a steep loss by IBM (IBM) limited the upside for the Dow. While the Dow inched up 19.26 points or 0.1 percent to 16,399.67, the Nasdaq soared 57.64 points or 1.4 percent to 4,316.07 and the S&P 500 jumped 17.25 points or 0.9 percent to 1,904.01.