Major Averages Posting Steep Losses In Early Trading

(RTTNews) - Stocks have moved sharply lower in morning trading on Friday, extending the sell-off that was seen in the previous session. With the steep drop on the day, all three major averages have fallen to new multi-month intraday lows.

The continued weakness on Wall Street partly reflects the recent downward momentum for the markets, which comes amid overarching concerns about developing economies and the outlook for U.S. interest rates.

Adding to the worries, the Chinese markets showed another steep decline overnight, with the Shanghai Composite Index plunging by 4.3 percent.

Overall trading activity has remained somewhat subdued on a summer Friday, however, potentially exaggerating the downward move by the markets.

Most of the major sectors have shown significant moves to the downside on the day, reflecting broad based selling pressure.

Gold stocks are posting particularly steep losses, resulting in a 2.4 percent drop by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index. The weakness among gold stocks comes even though the price of the precious metal is roughly flat.

Energy, airline, internet, and consumer discretionary stocks are also seeing notable weakness, while some electronic storage stocks are bucking the downtrend.

Currently, the major averages are posting steep losses, near their lows for the young session. The Dow is down 215.26 points or 1.3 percent at 16,775.43, the Nasdaq is down 79.72 points or 1.6 percent at 4,797.77 and the S&P 500 is down 26.53 points or 1.3 percent at 2,009.20.