Major Averages Close Firmly In Positive Territory

(RTTNews) - After seeing considerable volatility throughout the previous session, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Tuesday. With the upward move, the markets further offset the sharp pullback that was seen last Friday.

Biotechnology stocks showed a substantial move to the upside over the course of the trading day, driving the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index up by 3 percent. Despite the strong gain, the index remained stuck in a recent trading range.

Incyte (INCY), Regeneron (REGN), and United Therapeutics (UTHR) turned in some of the biotech sector's best performances.

Considerable strength also emerged among gold stocks, as reflected by the 1.5 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index. The gains by gold stocks came despite a modest decrease by the price of the precious metal.

Telecom stocks also saw significant strength, resulting in a 1.6 percent gain by the NYSE Arca Telecom Index. While Sprint led the sector higher, Level 3 (LVLT) and Frontier (FTR) also posted strong gains.

Airline, networking, and tobacco stocks also moved notably higher on the day, moving to the upside along with most of the other major sectors. The major averages moved roughly sideways throughout the afternoon, hovering firmly in positive territory. The Dow ended the day up 86.63 points or 0.5 percent at 16,535.37, the Nasdaq climbed 29.14 points or 0.7 percent to 4,103.54 and the S&P 500 rose 8.90 points or 0.5 percent to 1,878.33.