Major Averages Remain Firmly Negative In Mid-Day Trading

(RTTNews) - After falling sharply early in the session, stocks continue to see substantial weakness in mid-day trading on Monday. With the sell-off on the day, the Dow is showing its biggest percentage drop on the first trading day of the year since 1932.

Most of the major sectors have come under considerable pressure on the day, reflecting broad based weakness on Wall Street.

Airline stocks are turning some of the market's worst performances in mid-day trading, resulting in a 3.7 percent drop by the NYSE Arca Airline Index. With the loss, the index has fallen to its lowest intraday level in over three months.

Within the airline sector, China Southern Airlines (ZNH) and Republic Airways (RJET) are posting particularly steep losses.

Substantial weakness is also visible among internet stocks, as reflected by the 3.7 percent loss being posted by the Dow Jones Internet Index. Netflix (NFLX) has helped to lead the sector lower after Baird downgraded the stock to Neutral from Outperform.

Biotechnology, steel, financial, and software stocks are also seeing significant weakness, while gold stocks are among the few groups bucking the downtrend.

Currently, the major averages are off their worst levels of the day but still firmly in the red. The Dow is down 426.70 points or 2.5 percent at 16,998.33, the Nasdaq is down 138.40 points or 2.8 percent at 4,869.01 and the S&P 500 is down 47.59 points or 2.3 percent at 1,996.35.