Major Averages Close At Their Worst Levels Of The Day

(RTTNews) - Stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the trading day on Wednesday after showing a lack of direction early in the session. With the drop on the day, the tech-heavy Nasdaq pulled back well off yesterday's record closing high.

Transportation stocks showed a substantial move to the downside over the course of the trading session, dragging the Dow Jones Transportation Average down by 1.9 percent. With the drop, the average fell toward the low end of a recent trading range.

Within the transportation sector, railroad stocks posted particularly steep losses, with the Dow Jones Railroads Index tumbling by 2.8 percent.

Significant weakness also emerged among telecom stocks, as reflected by the 1.6 percent loss posted by the NYSE Arca Telecom Index. The loss pulled the index down to a nearly three-month closing low.

Chemical stocks also came under pressure on the day, resulting in a 1.5 percent drop by the Dow Jones Chemicals Index. Industry giant DuPont (DD) fell 3.4 percent to its worst closing level in over eight months.

Electronic storage, networking, and biotechnology stocks also saw notable weakness, moving lower along with most of the other major sectors.

The major averages saw further downside going into the close, ending the session at their worst levels of the day. The Dow tumbled 178.00 points or 1 percent to 17,966.07, the Nasdaq fell 37.68 points or 0.7 percent to 5,122.41 and the S&P 500 slumped 15.62 points or 0.7 percent to 2,108.58.