Major Averages Close In Positive Territory But Off Highs For The Session

(RTTNews) - Stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading session on Monday after initially showing a lack of direction. With the upward move on the day, the Dow and the S&P 500 reached new record closing highs.

Brokerage stocks showed a strong move to the upside over the course of the trading day, driving the NYSE Arca Broker/Dealer Index up by 1.7 percent. With the gain the index reached a seven-year closing high.

LPL Financial (LPLA), E*Trade (ETFC), and Interactive Brokers (IBKR) turned in some of the brokerage sector's best performances.

Significant strength was also visible among biotechnology stocks, as reflected by the 1.7 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index. The gain lifted the index to its best closing level in almost a month.

Trucking, networking, and semiconductor stocks also saw notable strength on the day, while considerable weakness was visible among steel stocks.

The major averages gave back some ground going into the close but remained in positive territory. The Dow edged up 26.32 points or 0.1 percent to 18,298.88, the Nasdaq advanced 30.15 points or 0.6 percent to 5,078.44 and the S&P 500 climbed 6.47 points or 0.3 percent to 2,129.20.