Major Averages Close Mixed For The Session And The Week

(RTTNews) - Stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading day on Friday before ending the session mostly lower. A mixed batch of earnings and economic news contributed to a lackluster performance by the markets for much of the session.

While most of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves, considerable weakness was visible among housing stocks. Reflecting the weakness in the housing sector, the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index fell by 1.5 percent.

Standard Pacific (SPF) and Lennar (LEN) turned in two of the housing sector's worst performances amid news of a pullback in housing starts.

Trucking and natural gas stocks also saw some weakness on the day, while gold stocks showed a substantial move to the upside. The NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index surged up by 3.5 percent to its best closing level in almost two months.

The strength among gold stocks came amid an increase by the price of the precious metal, with gold for February delivery climbing $11.70 to $1,251.90 an ounce.

Reflecting the weakness on Wall Street, the Nasdaq slid 21.11 points or 0.5 percent to 4,197.58 and the S&P 500 fell 7.19 points or 0.4 percent to 1,838.70. At the same time, the 30 component Dow rose 41.55 points or 0.3 percent to 16,458.56.

The major averages closed mixed for the second consecutive session and also turned in a mixed performance for the week. While the S&P 500 edged down 0.2 percent, the Dow inched up 0.1 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 0.5 percent.