Major Averages Close Mixed Following Lackluster Session

(RTTNews) - Stocks showed a lack of direction throughout much of the trading day on Tuesday before moving mostly lower going into the close. The late-day pullback extended the downward trend shown by the markets over the past few sessions.

The selling pressure seen late in the trading day likely reflected renewed uncertainty about the outlook for the markets following the volatility seen over the past week.

Following last Wednesday's Federal Reserve-inspired rally, stocks have moved mostly lower, with the Dow and the S&P 500 offsetting last week's gains.

Despite the late-day pullback by the broader markets, most of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves.

While some weakness was visible among software, banking, and real estate stocks, housing, electronic storage and health insurance stocks held on to some of their earlier gains.

The major averages ended the day mixed, as the Nasdaq managed to cling to a modest gain. While the Nasdaq edged up 2.97 points or 0.1 percent to 3,768.25, the Dow fell 66.79 points or 0.4 percent to 15,334.59 and the S&P 500 dipped 4.42 points or 0.3 percent to 1,697.42.