Major Averages Close In The Red But Well Off Worst Levels

(RTTNews) - Stocks recovered from an early move to the downside but maintained a negative bias throughout the trading session on Wednesday before closing mostly lower.

While many of the major sectors ended the session well off their worst levels of the day, substantial weakness remained visible among trucking stocks. The Dow Jones Trucking Index tumbled by 3.6 percent to a seven-month closing low.

C.H. Robinson (CHRW) helped to lead the trucking sector lower, plunging by 9.4 percent after reporting weaker than expected fourth quarter results.

Gold stocks also came under pressure over the course of the trading day, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 1.9 percent. The weakness in the gold sector came despite an increase by the price of the precious metal.

Similarly, oil service stocks saw significant weakness even though the price of crude oil ended the day modestly higher. The Philadelphia Oil Service Index fell by 1.4 percent to its lowest closing level in five months.

Biotechnology, natural gas, and brokerage stocks also saw some weakness on the day, while notable strength emerged among tobacco stocks.

While the Dow hugged the unchanged line throughout the afternoon, the blue chip index ended the day in the red along with the broader Nasdaq and S&P 500.

The Dow edged down 5.01 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 15,440.23, while the Nasdaq fell 19.97 points or 0.5 percent to 4,011.55 and the S&P 500 dipped 3.56 points or 0.2 percent to 1,751.64.