Major Averages Lingering In Negative Territory In Mid-Day Trading

(RTTNews) - After showing a lack of direction earlier in the session, stocks are mostly lower in mid-day trading on Thursday. With the losses on the day, the major averages are extending the downward move seen over the four previous sessions.

Housing stocks have shown a significant move to the downside on the day, dragging the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index down by 2.8 percent. The index is pulling back further off the seven-year closing high it set on Monday.

Lennar (LEN) has helped to lead the housing sector lower, with the homebuilder tumbling by 5.7 percent after reporting better than expected fourth quarter earnings but forecasting a drop in margins.

Considerable weakness is also visible among banking stocks, as reflected by the 2.1 percent loss being posted by the Dow Jones Banks Index. With the loss, the index has fallen to its lowest intraday level in almost three months.

Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C) are turning in two of the sector's worst performances after reporting weaker than expected fourth quarter earnings.

Networking, internet, and computer hardware stocks are also under pressure in mid-day trading, contributing to the notable drop by the tech-heavy Nasdaq.

On the other hand, gold stocks continue to see substantial strength on the day, with the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index surging up by 7.3 percent. The strength in the sector comes as gold for February delivery has shot up $28.60 to $1,263.10 an ounce.

Currently, the major averages are in negative territory but off their worst levels of the day. The Dow is down 58.15 points or 0.3 percent at 17,368.94, the Nasdaq is down 34.74 points or 0.8 percent at 4,604.58 and the S&P 500 is down 9.18 points or 0.5 percent at 2,002.09.