Major Averages Close Modestly Lower After Choppy Trading Session

(RTTNews) - Stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance throughout the trading day on Monday before ending the session modestly lower. The slight drop on the day partly offset the strong upward move that was seen last week.

Railroad stocks showed a significant move to the downside on the day, dragging the Dow Jones Railroads Index down by 2.1 percent. The drop by the index came after it ended last Friday's trading at its best closing level in a month.

CSX Corp. (CSX), Genesee & Wyoming (GWR), and FreightCar America (RAIL) turned in some of the railroad sector's worst performances.

Significant weakness also emerged among steel stocks, as reflected by the 1.5 percent loss posted by the NYSE Arca Steel Index. U.S. Steel (X) helped lead the sector lower, tumbling by 8.1 percent.

Semiconductor, utilities and pharmaceutical stocks also saw notable weakness, while considerable strength was visible among biotechnology stocks.

The major averages finished the day just below the unchanged line. The Dow edged down 2.58 points or 0.1 percent to 2,086.59, the Nasdaq dipped 31.13 points or 0.2 percent to 17,792.68 and the S&P 500 slipped 2.44 points or 0.1 percent to 5,102.48.