Dow Sets Six-Month Low Amid Continued Sell-Off

(RTTNews) - After fluctuating over the course of morning trading on Monday, stocks showed a substantial move to the downside in the afternoon. The sharp pullback on the day extended the recent sell-off on Wall Street, with the Dow falling to its lowest levels in six months.

Energy stocks helped to lead the markets lower once again, with significant weakness visible among natural gas and oil service stocks.

The NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index and the Philadelphia Oil Service Index tumbled by 3.6 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively. Both indexes ended the session at their worst closing levels in over a year.

While crude for November delivery recovered from a low of $84.07 a barrel to end the day roughly flat, the commodity moved back to the downside in electronic trading.

Substantial weakness also emerged among chemical stocks, as reflected by the 2.9 percent plunge by the Dow Jones Chemicals Index. With the steep drop, the index fell to an eight-month closing low.

Airline stocks also extended their recent sell-off, dragging the NYSE Arca Airline Index down by 2.8 percent to its worst closing level in almost eight months.

Healthcare, electronic storage, housing, and biotech stocks also saw considerable weakness on the day, while gold and steel stocks bucked the downtrend.

The major averages ended the day firmly in the red, near their lows for the session. The Dow tumbled 223.03 points or 1.4 percent to 16,321.07, the Nasdaq dove 62.58 points or 1.5 percent to 4,213.66 and the S&P 500 plummeted 31.39 points or 1.7 percent to 1,874.74.