Dow And S&P 500 Drop To Worst Closing Levels In Almost A Month

(RTTNews) - After seeing considerable volatility in early trading, stocks moved notably lower over the course of the trading day on Thursday. With the pullback on the day, the Dow and the S&P 500 fell to their lowest closing levels in nearly a month.

Computer hardware stocks showed a substantial move to the downside over the course of the session, dragging the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index down by 1.4 percent. The drop by the index came after it ended the previous session at a three-month closing high.

Western Digital (WDC), Seagate Technology (STX), and Lexmark (LXK) turned in some of the hardware sector's worst performances.

Significant weakness was also visible among steel stocks, as reflected by the 1.5 percent loss posted by the NYSE Arca Steel Index. A.M. Castle (CAS) and Posco (PKX) posted notable losses.

Chemical stocks also came under considerable selling pressure on the day, resulting in a 1.4 percent drop by the Dow Jones Chemicals Index. With the loss, the index moved toward the lower end of a recent trading range.

Energy, gold, and biotechnology stocks also saw notable weakness, moving lower along with most of the other major sectors.

The major averages finished the session firmly in negative territory. The Dow tumbled 170.69 points or 0.9 percent to 17,905.58, the Nasdaq slid 40.11 points or 0.8 percent to 5,059.12 and the S&P 500 slumped 18.23 points or 0.9 percent to 2,095.84.