Stocks Remain Mostly Negative In Mid-Day Trading - U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - After coming under pressure in early trading, stocks continue to see notable weakness in mid-day trading on Monday With the drop on the day, the major averages are pulling back further off their recent multi-month highs.

Currently, the major averages remain firmly in the red. The Dow is down 106.60 points or 0.6 percent at 17,897.15, the Nasdaq is down 24.70 points or 0.5 percent at 4,881.52 and the S&P 500 is down 11.57 points or 0.6 percent at 2,080.01.

The weakness on Wall Street comes as traders are cashing in on recent gains ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but traders are likely to keep a close eye on the accompanying statement for clues about the outlook for the next meeting in June.

Earnings news is also likely to continue to attract attention this week, as a slew of big name companies are due to release their quarterly results in the coming days.

On the U.S. economic front, the Commerce Department released a report showing an unexpected decrease in new home sales in the month of March.

The report said new home sales fell 1.5 percent to an annual rate of 511,000 in March from a revised rate of 519,000 in February.

The decrease surprised economists, who had expected new home sales to climb to a rate of 522,000 from the 512,000 originally reported for the previous month.

Despite the monthly decrease, new home sales were still up by 5.4 percent compared to a rate of 485,000 in the same month a year ago.

Steel stocks have shown a substantial move to the downside on the day, dragging the NYSE Arca Steel Index down by 3.9 percent.

Energy, railroad, and financial stocks have also come under pressure, moving lower along with most of the other major sectors.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Monday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index both fell by 0.8 percent.

The major European markets also moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index dropped by 0.5 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index both slid by 0.8 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries are showing a lack of direction after trending lower in recent sessions. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by less than a basis point at 1.895 percent.