Nasdaq Closes Firmly Positive, Dow And S&P 500 Roughly Flat

(RTTNews) - After moving mostly higher over the course of the trading session on Tuesday, stocks pulled back rather sharply going into the close. While the tech-heavy Nasdaq managed to remain firmly in positive territory, the Dow and the S&P 500 ended the day roughly flat.

Most of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves, contributing to the lackluster performance shown by the markets at the close of trading.

Housing stocks saw significant strength on the day, however, with the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index surging up by 2.5 percent. With the gain, the index reached a five-month closing high.

MDC Holdings (MDC) and Ryland Group (RYL) turned in two of the housing sector's best performances, jumping by 5.7 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively.

Semiconductor and networking stocks also ended the day on the upside, contributing to the notably higher close by the Nasdaq.

Meanwhile, gold stocks came under considerable selling pressure, extending a recent downward trend. The NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index tumbled 2.7 percent to a five-year closing low.

The continued weakness among gold stocks came even though the price of the precious metal ended the day nearly unchanged.

For the session, the Nasdaq rose 23.18 points or 0.6 percent to 4,017.75, while the Dow inched up 0.26 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 16,072.80 and the S&P 500 crept up 0.27 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 1,802.75.