Major Averages Posting Moderate Gains In Early Trading

(RTTNews) - Stocks have fluctuated over the course of early trading on Thursday, as traders digest the European Central Bank's highly anticipated policy announcement. The major averages have been bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.

The choppy trading on Wall Street comes following European Central Bank President Mario Draghi's announcement of an expanded asset purchase program.

Draghi said the ECB will purchase 60 billion euros per month worth of securities, including investment grade sovereign bonds, beginning in March.

While news of the additional stimulus has generated some positive sentiment, traders also seem to be expressing some concerns about the potential risks to the national central banks.

Nonetheless, airline stocks have shown a strong move to the upside on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Airline Index up by 3 percent. With the gain, the index has reached its best intraday level in almost thirteen years.

Southwest Airlines (LUV) and United Continental (UAL) have helped to lead the sector higher after reporting their quarterly results.

Other transportation stocks are also moving notably higher along with banking and computer hardware stocks, while weakness is visible among networking and semiconductor stocks.

The major averages have moved to the upside in recent trading and are currently posting moderate gains. The Dow is up 56.54 points or 0.3 percent at 17,610.82, the Nasdaq is up 20.31 points or 0.4 percent at 4,687.73 and the S&P 500 is up 9.85 points or 0.5 percent at 2,041.97.