Major Averages Close Mixed Despite Late-Day Pullback

(RTTNews) - After turning in a lackluster performance for much of the session, stocks came under pressure in the latter part of the trading day on Monday and closed mostly lower. Profit taking contributed to the pullback by the markets along with a negative reaction to comments from billionaire investor Carl Icahn.

Gold stocks turned in some of the market's worst performances on the day, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 2 percent. With the loss, the index fell to its lowest closing level in a month.

The weakness among gold stocks came amid a notable decrease by the price of the precious metal, with gold for December delivery falling $15.10 to $1,272.30 an ounce.

Considerable weakness was also visible among oil service stocks, which moved lower along with the price of the crude oil. The Philadelphia Oil Service Index fell by 1.9 percent after ending last Friday's trading at a two-year closing high.

Biotechnology, networking, and computer hardware stocks also came under pressure, contributing to a steep downward move by the tech-heavy Nasdaq.

The major averages all showed a notable move to the downside in late-day trading but ended the day mixed, as the Dow managed to post a modest gain.

While the Dow edged up 14.32 points or 0.1 percent to 15,976.02, the Nasdaq tumbled 36.90 points or 0.9 percent to 3,939.07 and the S&P 500 fell 6.65 points or 0.4 percent to 1,791.53.