Major Averages Posting Modest Losses In Early Trading

(RTTNews) - After moving to the downside at the open, stocks continue to see modest weakness in early trading on Wednesday. The major averages have all slid into negative territory after ending the previous session nearly unchanged.

The early weakness on Wall Street is partly due to news that the World Bank lowered its global economic growth forecast for 2014.

Citing poor weather in the U.S., financial market turbulence and the Ukrainian crisis, the World Bank said it now expects the global economy to grow by 2.8 percent in 2014 compared to its previous forecast for 3.2 percent growth.

Some traders have also taken the opportunity to cash in the on the recent strength in the markets, which lifted the Dow and the S&P 500 to record highs and the Nasdaq to its best levels in three months.

Airline stocks are seeing significant weakness in early trading, with the NYSE Arca Airline Index down by 1.8 percent. With the loss, the index continues to pull back off the off the twelve-year closing high that it set last Friday.

Brokerage, defense, and housing stocks are also seeing early weakness, while most of the other major sectors have shown more modest moves to the downside.

The major averages have recently climbed off their lows for the young session but remain in the red. The Dow is down 68.32 points or 0.4 percent at 16,877.60, the Nasdaq is down 4.92 points or 0.1 percent at 4,333.08 and the S&P 500 is down 5.47 points or 0.3 percent at 1,945.32.