Market Commentary and Intraday News

Notable Strength Remains Visible On Wall Street - U.S. Commentary

286 days ago

(RTTNews) - Stocks remain mostly positive in mid-afternoon trading on Monday after showing a strong move to the upside earlier in the session. The major averages are adding to last Friday's standout gains and are poised to end the day at three-month closing highs.

The markets continue to benefit from a positive reaction to last week's relatively upbeat U.S. jobs report as well as optimism that the European Central Bank will take additional steps to address the ongoing debt crisis across the Atlantic.

Steel stocks have moved sharply higher on the day, resulting in a 3.2 percent gain by the NYSE Arca Steel Index. The index has reached its best intraday level in almost a month amid strong gains by AK Steel (AKS) and A.M. Castle (CAS).

Considerable strength also remains visible among gold stocks, which have moved higher along with the price of the precious metal. With gold for December delivery climbing $6.90 to $1,616.20 an ounce, the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index has advanced by 3.2 percent.

Networking stocks are also seeing significant strength on the day, as reflected by the 2.7 percent gain being posted by the NYSE Arca Networking Index. Airline, software and computer hardware stocks are also posting notable gains, moving higher along with most of the major sectors.

The major averages are currently all in positive territory, although the tech-heavy Nasdaq is outperforming its counterparts. While the Nasdaq is up 29.52 points or 1 percent at 2,997.42, the Dow is up 72.35 points or 0.6 percent at 13,168.52 and the S&P 500 is up 7.34 points or 0.5 percent at 1,398.33.

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