Major Averages End Choppy Trading Day Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - With traders reluctant to make any significant moves, stocks showed a lack of direction throughout much of the trading day on Tuesday. The choppy trading came as traders looked ahead to tomorrow's announcement of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision.

While most of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves, considerable weakness was visible among airline stocks. Reflecting the weakness in the airline sector, the NYSE Arca Airline Index tumbled by 1.9 percent.

Latam Airlines (LFL), Delta (DAL), and JetBlue (JBLU) turned in some of the airline sector's worst performances on the day.

Biotechnology stocks also saw significant weakness, resulting in a 1.1 percent drop by the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index. Pharmacyclics (PCYC) helped to lead the sector lower, falling by 6.9 percent.

Banking and healthcare stocks also moved to the downside on the day, while some strength was visible among semiconductor and telecom stocks.

The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before closing modestly lower. The Dow edged down 9.31 points or 0.1 percent to 15,875.26, the Nasdaq dipped 5.84 points or 0.1 percent to 4,023.68 and the S&P 500 slipped 5.54 points or 0.3 percent to 1,781.00.