Major Averages Posting Moderate Losses In Mid-Day Trading

(RTTNews) - After initially showing a lack of direction, stocks have moved modestly lower over the course of the trading day on Tuesday. Selling pressure has remained relatively subdued, however, limiting the downside for the markets.

A majority of the major sectors have moved to the downside on the day, although most are seeing only modest weakness.

Nonetheless, significant weakness has emerged among electronic storage stocks, as reflected by the 1.5 percent loss being posted by the NYSE Arca Disk Drive Index. Western Digital (WDC) and Sandisk (SNDK) are posting notable losses.

Networking, energy, and semiconductor stocks are also seeing some weakness in mid-day trading, while gold stocks are bucking the downtrend amid an increase by the price of the precious metal.

With gold for December delivery climbing $6.30 to $1,316.80 an ounce, the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index has surged up by 2.3 percent

Currently, the major averages are posting moderate losses, near their lows for the session. The Dow is down 45.43 points or 0.3 percent at 16,524.44, the Nasdaq is down 18.95 points or 0.4 percent at 4,382.38 and the S&P 500 is down 6.13 points or 0.3 percent at 1,930.79.