Major Averages Hovering Near Their Best Levels

(RTTNews) - After moving to the upside in early trading on Thursday, stocks have continued to perform well over the course of the session. With the gains on the day, the major averages have offset the weakness seen in the previous session and continue to recover from Monday's sell-off.

While most of the major sectors have moved to the upside on the day, significant strength remains visible among housing stocks. Reflecting the strength in the housing sector, the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index has surged up by 3.1 percent.

Vulcan Materials (VMC) has helped to lead the housing sector higher, with the construction materials producer jumping 10.2 percent after reporting strong fourth quarter earnings growth.

Considerable strength has also emerged among airline stocks, as reflected by the 2.3 percent gain being posted by the NYSE Arca Airline Index. The index is climbing further off the one-month closing low that it set on Monday.

Steel stocks are also turning in a strong performance on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Steel Index up by 2.4 percent. With the gain, the index continues to recover from Monday's five-month closing low.

Networking, semiconductor, retail, and oil stocks are also seeing notable strength amid broad based buying interest on Wall Street.

The major averages have moved roughly sideways in recent trading, hovering near their best levels of the day. The Dow is up 157.93 points or 1 percent at 15,598.16, the Nasdaq is up 44.68 points or 1.1 percent at 4,056.23 and the S&P 500 is up 18.07 points or 1 percent at 1,769.71.