Major Averages Climb More Firmly Into Positive Territory

(RTTNews) - After initially showing a lack of direction, stocks have moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Wednesday. The strength that has emerged on the day is extending the rally that was seen in the previous session.

Gold stocks have shown a substantial move to the upside over the course of the session, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 4.9 percent. The gain by the index comes after it ended the previous session at its lowest closing level in over a month.

The rally by gold stocks comes amid a sharp increase by the price of the precious metal, with gold for December delivery jumping $19.60 to $1,122.20 an ounce.

Significant strength has also emerged among energy stocks, which are moving higher along with the price of crude oil. Crude for October delivery is currently surging up $2.45 to $47.04 a barrel.

The sharp increase by the price of oil comes after a government report showed that crude oil inventories fell by 2.1 million barrels in the week ended September 11th.

Steel, railroad, computer hardware, and utilities stocks have also moved to the upside on the day, while some weakness remains visible among biotechnology stocks.

Currently, the major averages are hovering in positive territory. The Dow is up 89.26 points or 0.5 percent at 16,689.11, the Nasdaq is up 13.55 points or 0.3 percent at 4,874.07 and the S&P 500 is up 11.31 points or 0.6 percent at 1,989.40.