Major Averages Bouncing Back And Forth In Early Trading

(RTTNews) - After moving lower at the open, stocks have seen considerable volatility over the course of early trading on Thursday. The major averages bounced off their early lows and into positive territory but have moved back to the downside since then.

The choppy trading on Wall Street comes following comments from the International Monetary Fund, which urged the Federal Reserve to delay raising interest rates until the first half of next year.

The IMF's call for delaying the first rate hike came as the lender lowered its forecast for U.S. economic growth this year to 2.5 percent from 3.1 percent.

Traders are also expressing some uncertainty ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly employment report on Thursday.

Natural gas stocks have shown a significant move to the downside in early trading, dragging the NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index down by 1.3 percent to a two-month low. Chesapeake Energy (CHK) has helped to lead the sector lower, tumbling by 3.5 percent.

Considerable weakness is also visible among gold, chemical, and oil service stocks, while most of the other major sectors are showing more modest moves.

Currently, the major averages are posting modest losses on the day. The Dow is down 56.28 points or 0.3 percent at 18,019.99, the Nasdaq is down 10.70 points or 0.2 percent at 5,088.53 and the S&P 500 is down 7.24 points or 0.3 percent at 2,106.83.