Major Averages Pull Back To Two-Month Closing Lows

(RTTNews) - Stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the trading day on Thursday, extending the volatility seen over the past several sessions. The substantial pullback by the markets offset the rally that was seen in the previous session.

Reflecting weakness in the broader resource sector, natural gas stocks showed a substantial move to the downside on the day. The NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index plummeted by 4.6 percent to its lowest closing level in almost nine months.

Chesapeake Energy (CHK) and Williams (WMB) turned in two of the natural gas sector's worst performances, tumbling by 7 percent and 6.8 percent, respectively.

Oil service stocks also saw substantial weakness, moving lower along with the price of crude oil. With crude for November delivery falling by $1.54 to a nearly two-year low of $85.77 a barrel, the Philadelphia Oil Service Index dove by 4.1 percent.

Outside of the resource sector, considerable weakness was also visible among networking stocks, as reflected by the 2.9 percent loss posted by the NYSE Arca Networking Index. Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) helped to lead the sector lower, plunging by 9.5 percent.

Semiconductor, railroad, chemical, and brokerage stocks also came under pressure on the day, reflecting broad based weakness on Wall Street.

The major averages ended the day firmly in negative territory, near their lows for the session. The Dow plunged 334.97 points or 2 percent to 16,659.25, the Nasdaq tumbled 90.26 points or 2 percent to 4,378.34 and the S&P 500 plummeted 40.68 points or 2.1 percent to 1,928.21.

With the steep losses on the day, the major averages all ended the session at their worst closing levels in about two months.