Major Averages Turn Mixed After Seeing Early Weakness

(RTTNews) - After coming under pressure early in the session, stocks have regained some ground over the course of the trading day on Friday. The major averages have bounced well off their lows for the session, with the Dow climbing into positive territory.

Despite the recovery by the broader markets, gold stocks continue to see substantial weakness, resulting in a 2.8 percent drop by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index. The index hit its worst intraday level in thirteen years earlier in the session.

The weakness among gold stocks comes amid a decrease by the price of the precious metal, with gold for December delivery falling $7.80 to $1,101.50 an ounce.

Significant weakness also remains visible among oil service stocks, which are moving lower along with the price of crude oil. With crude for October delivery sliding $0.79 to $45.13 a barrel, the Philadelphia Oil Service Index is down by 2.7 percent.

Natural gas, networking, and telecom stocks are also seeing notable weakness on the day, while some strength has emerged among commercial real estate and biotechnology stocks.

Currently, the major averages are on opposite sides of the unchanged line. While the Dow is up 21.68 points or 0.1 percent at 16,352.08, the Nasdaq is down 7.49 points or 0.2 percent at 4,788.76 and the S&P 500 is down 2.06 points or 0.1 percent at 1,950.23.