Major Averages Recover From Early Lows But Still Close In The Red

(RTTNews) - After coming under pressure in early trading on Wednesday, stocks regained some ground as the day progressed but remained stuck in the red. The losses on the day extended the pullback that was seen in the previous session.

While many of the major sectors recovered from their early lows, significant weakness remained visible among gold stocks. The NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index fell by 1.7 percent, hitting its lowest closing level in almost two months.

The weakness in the gold sector came amid a modest decrease by the price of the precious metal, with gold for April delivery sliding $3.50 to $1,200.90 an ounce.

Steel stocks also ended the day notably lower, resulting in a 1.3 percent drop by the NYSE Arca Steel Index. L.B. Foster (FSTR) posted a particularly steep loss after Stifel downgraded its rating on the company's stock to Hold from Buy.

Commercial real estate and computer hardware stocks also saw considerable weakness, while significant strength emerged among biotechnology stocks.

The major averages ended the day moderately lower, well off their worst levels. The Dow slid 106.47 points or 0.6 percent to 18,096.90, the Nasdaq dipped 12.76 points or 0.3 percent to 4,967.14 and the S&P 500 fell 9.25 points r 0.4 percent to 2,098.53.