Major Averages End Choppy Trading Day Mixed

(RTTNews) - After trending higher over the past few sessions, stocks showed a lack of direction throughout the trading day on Thursday. The major averages spent the session bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before ending the day mixed.

Most of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves, contributing to the lackluster close by the broader markets.

Semiconductor stocks saw considerable strength, however, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index surging up by 1.9 percent. With the gain, the index climbed further off the one-month closing low that it set last Friday.

SanDisk (SNDK) helped to lead the semiconductor sector higher, with the chipmaker jumping by 9.4 percent after reporting better than expected first quarter earnings.

Natural gas stocks also moved notably higher on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index up by 1.5 percent. The gain extended a recent upward move by the index, which reached a record closing high amid an increase by the price of natural gas.

Networking, brokerage, and oil service stocks also showed strong moves to the upside on the day, while significant weakness was visible among utilities and gold stocks.

While the major averages closed on opposite sides of the unchanged line, they all showed only modest moves. The Dow edged down 16.31 points or 0.1 percent to 16,408.54, while the Nasdaq crept up 9.29 points or 0.2 percent to 4,095.52 and the S&P 500 inched up 2.54 points or 0.1 percent to 1,864.85.

Despite the mixed performance on the day, the major averages all moved notably higher for the week. The S&P 500 surged up by 2.7 percent, while the Dow and the Nasdaq both jumped by 2.4 percent.