Major Averages Lingering In Negative Territory In Mid-Day Trading

(RTTNews) - Stocks have moved mostly lower over the course of the trading day on Thursday after seeing considerable volatility earlier in the session. The losses on the day have offset the moderate strength that was seen in the previous session.

Gold stocks are turning in some of the market's worst performances in mid-day trading, resulting in a 1.6 percent drop by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index. With the loss, the index has fallen to a two-month intraday low.

The weakness among gold stocks comes amid a notable decrease by the price of the precious metal, with gold for August delivery falling $11 to $1,173.90 an ounce.

Significant weakness has also emerged among chemical stocks, as reflected by the 1.5 percent loss being posted by the Dow Jones Chemicals Index. Air Products (APD) and DuPont (DD) are posting notable losses on the day.

Computer hardware, energy, and steel stocks are also under pressure, while most of the other major sectors have shown more modest moves to the downside.

The major averages have moved roughly sideways in recent trading, lingering near their worst levels of the day. The Dow is down 124.15 points or 0.7 percent at 17,952.12, the Nasdaq is down 23.54 points or 0.5 percent at 5,075.70 and the S&P 500 is down 12.02 points or 0.6 percent at 2,102.05.