Major Averages Hovering In Positive Territory In Mid-Day Trading

(RTTNews) - After showing a lack of conviction in early trading, stocks have moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Tuesday. With the upward move on the day, the markets have further offset the sharp pullback that was seen last Friday.

Biotechnology stocks are seeing considerable strength in mid-day trading, with the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index up by 2.1 percent. Despite the gain, the index remains stuck in a recent trading range.

United Therapeutics (UTHR) is turning in one of the biotech sector's best performances after reporting better than expected first quarter results.

Significant strength is also visible among telecom stocks, as reflected by the 1.6 percent gain being posted by the NYSE Arca Telecom Index. While Sprint is leading the sector higher, Level 3 (LVLT) and Frontier (FTR) are also posting strong gains.

Tobacco, energy, and brokerage stocks are also seeing notable strength, while most of the other major sectors have shown more modest moves to the upside.

The major averages have moved roughly sideways in recent trading, hovering in positive territory. The Dow is up 88.34 points or 0.5 percent at 16,537.08, the Nasdaq is up 23.57 points or 0.6 percent at 4,097.97 and the S&P 500 is up 8.39 points or 0.5 percent at 1,877.82.