Major Averages Recover From Early Weakness To Close Roughly Flat

(RTTNews) - After coming under pressure in morning trading on Thursday, stocks showed a significant recovery over the course of the trading session. The major averages climbed well off their lows for the session before ending the day mixed.

Many of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves, although substantial weakness remained visible among electronic storage stocks. The NYSE Arca Disk Drive Index tumbled by 2.3 percent after surging up by 3.5 percent on Wednesday.

Imation (IMN), Datalink (DTLK), and Seagate Technology (STX) turned in some of the storage sector's worst performances.

Gold stocks also came under pressure on the day, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 2.3 percent. The weakness in the sector came as gold for December delivery dipped $1.50 to $1,113.70 an ounce.

Oil service, utilities, and semiconductor stocks also finished the session notable lower, while significant strength was visible among railroad and housing stocks.

While the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 managed to climb into positive territory, the Dow edged down 12.69 points or 0.1 percent to 16,272.01. The Nasdaq crept up 6.92 points or 0.2 percent to 4,627.08 and the S&P 500 rose 3.79 points or 0.2 percent to 1,923.82.