Major Averages Close Higher After Seeing Early Weakness

(RTTNews) - Extending the choppy trading seen in the previous session, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading day on Friday but managed to close higher for the second straight day. The gains on the day further offset the pullback seen on Wednesday.

Commercial real estate stocks showed a strong move to the upside over the course of the trading session, driving the Morgan Stanley REIT Index up by 1.8 percent. With the gain, the index climbed further off the eleven-month closing low set last Friday.

Urstadt Biddle Properties (UBA), DDR Corp. (DDR), and Mack-Cali Realty (CLI) turned in some of the real estate sector's best performances.

Significant strength also emerged among biotechnology stocks, as reflected by the 1.6 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index. Seattle Genetics (SGEN) and Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR) posted standout gains.

Electronic storage and housing stocks also saw notable strength on the day, contributing to the higher close by the broader markets.

On the other hand, considerable weakness remained visible among oil service stocks, which moved lower along with the price of crude oil. With crude for October delivery falling $1.29 to $44.63 a barrel, the Philadelphia Oil Service Index dropped by 2.4 percent.

Networking and natural gas stocks also moved to the downside, partly offsetting the strength seen in the aforementioned sectors.

The major averages moved to the upside going into the close, ending the session at their best levels of the day. The Dow advanced 102.69 points or 0.6 percent to 16,433.09, the Nasdaq climbed 26.09 points or 0.5 percent to 4,822.34 and the S&P 500 rose 8.76 points or 0.5 percent to 1,961.05.