Major Averages Posting Modest Losses In Mid-Day Trading

(RTTNews) - While selling pressure has remained subdued, stocks are seeing modest weakness in mid-day trading on Wednesday. Traders seem reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement.

Traders have mostly remained on the sidelines ahead of the announcement from the Fed, which is scheduled to be released at about 2 pm ET.

The Fed is likely to leave interest rates unchanged, but the central bank is widely expected to announce another $10 billion reduction in the pace of asset purchases to $35 billion per month.

The impact to the markets is more likely to stem from the language of the accompanying statement as well as any changes to the outlook for the economy and interest rates.

Despite the modest weakness being shown by the broader markets, significant strength has emerged among gold stocks. The NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index has advanced by 1.4 percent, reaching its best intraday level in a month.

The strength among gold stocks comes despite a modest decrease by the price of the precious metal, with gold for August delivery slipping $0.30 to $1,271.70 an ounce.

Trucking stocks are also seeing considerable strength on the day, resulting in a 1.1 percent gain by the Dow Jones Trucking Index. With the gain, the index is on pace to end the session at a record closing high.

Electronic storage and utilities stocks are also seeing some strength in mid-day trading, while weakness is visible among housing, semiconductor, and networking stocks.

Currently, the major averages remain just below the unchanged line. The Dow is down 37.76 points or 0.2 percent at 16,770.73, the Nasdaq is down 5.29 points or 0.1 percent at 4,331.95 and the S&P 500 is down 0.78 points or less than a tenth of a percent at 1,941.21.