Major Averages Close Higher For Third Consecutive Session

(RTTNews) - With traders looking ahead to tomorrow's monthly jobs report, stocks fluctuated over the course of the trading day on Thursday. The markets largely maintained a positive bias, however, and the major averages managed to close higher for the third straight day.

Despite the lackluster performance turned in by the broader markets, health insurance stocks managed to hold on to strong gains for the day. The Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payor Index advanced by 1.6 percent to a new record closing high.

Health Net (HNT) and WellCare (WCG) turned in two of the health insurance sector's best performances, rising by 3 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively.

Considerable strength was also visible among oil service stocks, as reflected by the 1.2 percent gain posted by the Philadelphia Oil Service Index. The strength in the sector came as crude oil for October delivery jumped $1.14 to $108.37 a barrel.

Steel, airline, and electronic storage stocks also saw some strength on the day, while gold stocks came under pressure along with the price of the precious metal.

With gold for December delivery falling $17 to $1,373 an ounce, the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index plummeted by 3.4 percent.

The major averages closed in positive territory but well off their highs for the session. The Dow inched up 6.61 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 14,937.48, the Nasdaq rose 9.74 points or 0.3 percent to 3,658.78 and the S&P 500 edged up 2.00 points or 0.1 percent to 1,655.08.