Major Averages Close In Positive Territory After Early Volatility

(RTTNews) - After initially showing a lack of direction, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Wednesday. The strength that emerged on Wall Street partly offset the weakness that was seen in the previous session.

Biotechnology stocks showed a substantial move to the upside over the course of the trading day, driving the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index up by 2 percent. With the gain, the index ended the session at a new record closing high.

Pharmacyclics (PCYC) helped lead the biotech sector higher, with the biopharmaceutical company surging up by 7.7 percent to its best closing level in six months.

Significant strength also emerged among networking stocks, as reflected by the 1.5 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Networking Index. The index reached a two-month closing high amid strong gains by Infinera (INFN) and Arris Group (ARRS).

Airline, financial, and internet stocks also saw notable strength on the day, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.

Meanwhile, gold stocks bucked the uptrend by the broader markets, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 2 percent to its lowest closing level in three months.

The major averages moved roughly sideways going into the close, hovering in positive territory. The Dow rose 54.84 points or 0.3 percent to 17,068.71, the Nasdaq advanced 34.24 points or 0.8 percent to 4,586.52 and the S&P 500 climbed 7.25 points or 0.4 percent to 1,995.69.