Tech-Heavy Nasdaq Reaches New Record Closing High

(RTTNews) - Stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Monday, offsetting the pullback seen last Friday. With the upward move on the day, the tech-heavy Nasdaq finished the session at a new record closing high.

Airline stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the trading day, driving the NYSE Arca Airline Index up by 2.3 percent. The gain extended a recent upward move by the index, which reached its best closing level in a month.

Avianca Holdings (AVH), JetBlue (JBLU), and American Airlines (AAL) turned in some of the airline sector's best performances on the day.

Considerable strength was also visible among biotechnology stocks, as reflected by the 2.1 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index. With the gain, the index ended the session at a new record closing high.

Brokerage, banking and pharmaceutical stocks also saw significant strength, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.

Meanwhile, gold stocks bucked the uptrend by the broader markets, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 1.5 percent. The weakness in the sector came as gold for August delivery fell $17.80 to $1,184.10 an ounce.

The major averages ended the day firmly in positive territory but well off their highs for the session. The Dow climbed 103.83 points or 0.6 percent to 18,119.78, the Nasdaq advanced 36.97 points or 0.7 percent to 5,153.97 and the S&P 500 rose 12.86 points or 0.6 percent to 2,122.85.