Major Averages Stuck Firmly In The Red In Mid-Day Trading

(RTTNews) - After moving sharply lower earlier in the session, stocks continue to see substantial weakness in mid-day trading on Friday. With the sell-off on the day, the markets have partly offset the upward move seen over the past two weeks.

Software stocks continue to see substantial weakness in mid-day trading, with the Dow Jones Software Index down by 1.9 percent. Despite the drop, the index remains stuck in a recent trading range.

Check Point (CHKP) and Adobe (ADBE) are turning in two of the software sector's worst performances, falling by 3.1 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively.

Significant weakness also remains visible among networking stocks, as reflected by the 1.8 percent loss being posted by the NYSE Arca Networking Index. With the drop, the index is pulling back further off the record closing high it set on Tuesday.

Most of the other major sectors are also seeing considerable weakness on the day, with internet, steel, brokerage, and biotech stocks showing notable moves to the downside.

The major averages have moved roughly sideways in recent trading, stuck firmly in negative territory. The Dow is down 238.56 points or 1.3 percent at 17,867.21, the Nasdaq is down 69.67 points or 1.4 percent at 4,938.12 and the S&P 500 is down 20.62 points or 1 percent at 2,084.37.