Major Averages Hovering Firmly In Positive Territory

(RTTNews) - After moving sharply higher earlier in the session, stocks continue to turn in a strong performance in afternoon trading on Monday. The gains on the day have largely offset the weakness that was seen during trading last week.

Most of the major sectors have moved to the upside on the day, reflecting broad based buying interest on Wall Street.

Biotechnology stocks are posting particularly strong gains, resulting in 2.4 percent jump by the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index. With the gain, the index has reached a new record intraday high.

United Therapeutics (UTHR) and Amgen (AMGN) are turning in two of the biotech sector's best performances, surging up by 6.5 percent and 4.9 percent, respectively.

Significant strength is also visible among trucking stocks, as reflected by the 2.1 percent gain being posted by the Dow Jones Trucking Index. The gain has lifted the index to its best level in well over two months.

Utilities stocks are also turning in a strong performance on the day, driving the Dow Jones Utilities Average up by 1.9 percent. The average is climbing further off the nearly five-month closing low set last Wednesday.

Health care, railroad, airline, and networking stocks are also seeing notable strength, while modest weakness is visible among steel stocks.

The major averages have moved roughly sideways in recent trading, hovering firmly in positive territory. The Dow is up 188.24 points or 1.1 percent at 17,937.55, the Nasdaq is up 45.22 points or 0.9 percent at 4,916.98 and the S&P 500 is up 21.57 points or 1.1 percent at 2,074.97.