Dow And S&P 500 Set New Record Closing Highs

(RTTNews) - After recovering from an early move to the downside, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Thursday. With the gains on the day, the Dow and the S&P 500 once again reached new record closing highs.

Gold stocks showed a strong move back to the upside on the day following the pullback seen in the previous session. The NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index surged up by 2.4 percent after ending Wednesday's trading down by 6 percent.

Strong gains by Allied Nevada Gold (ANV) and Tanzanian Royalty Exploration Corp. (TRX) contributed to the rebound by the gold sector, which came despite a decrease by the price of the precious metal.

Networking stocks also saw significant strength, driving the NYSE Arca Networking Index up by 1.6 percent. With the gain, the index reached its best closing level in over seven months.

Benefiting from upbeat existing home sales data, housing stocks also turned in a strong performance on the day. The Philadelphia Housing Sector Index jumped 1.4 percent to an eight-month closing high.

Energy, trucking, and computer hardware stocks also saw notable strength, with energy stocks moving higher along with the price of crude oil.

The major averages ended the session near their best levels of the day. The Dow rose 33.27 points or 0.2 percent to 17,719.00, the Nasdaq advanced 26.16 points or 0.6 percent to 4,701.87 and the S&P 500 climbed 4.03 points or 0.2 percent to 2,052.75.