Major Averages Regain Ground Following Last Week's Pullback

(RTTNews) - Stocks showed a strong upward move in early trading on Friday and managed to hold onto the bulk of the gains throughout session. While buying interest waned after the open, the markets maintained a notably positive bias.

While most of the major sectors moved to the upside on the day, significant strength was visible among telecom stocks. Reflecting the strength in the telecom sector, the NYSE Arca Telecom Index surged up by 2.1 percent.

Cincinnati Bell (CBB) helped to lead the telecom sector higher, while Telephone & Data Systems (TDS) and Motorola Solutions (MSI) also posted standout gains.

Airline stocks also turned in a strong performance, driving the NYSE Arca Airline Index up by 1.7 percent. With the gain, the index moved back toward the nearly twelve-year closing high set earlier this month.

Computer hardware, banking, defense, and semiconductor stocks also saw considerable strength, reflecting broad based buying interest.

On the other hand, gold stocks moved sharply lower on the day, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 3.7 percent. The weakness in the sector came as gold for April delivery fell $6.10 to $1,372.90 an ounce.

The major averages moved roughly sideways for much of the session following the initial rally. The Dow ended the day up 181.55 points or 1.1 percent at 16,247.22, the Nasdaq climbed 34.55 points or 0.8 percent to 4,279.95 and the S&P 500 jumped 17.70 points or 1 percent to 1,858.83.