S&P 500 Reaches New Record Closing High

(RTTNews) - Stocks moved modestly higher during trading on Monday, adding to the strong gains posted last Friday. While the markets continued to recover from the pullback seen early last week, buying interest remained relatively subdued.

Gold stocks turned in some of the market's best performances on the day, regaining ground after falling sharply over the past few weeks. The NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index advanced by 2.2 percent, bouncing off its worst closing level in five years.

The strength among gold stocks came amid an increase by the price of the precious metal, with gold for February delivery climbing $5.20 to $1,234.20 an ounce.

Significant strength was also visible among airline stocks, as reflected by the 1.4 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Airline Index. American Airlines Group (AAL) moved sharply higher as it began trading following the merger between American and US Airways.

Steel stocks also turned in a strong performance, benefiting from the upbeat Chinese data. Housing stocks also saw considerable strength, while most of the other major sectors showed more modest moves.

The major averages closed only slightly higher, although the S&P 500 still reached a new record closing high. The S&P 500 rose 3.28 points or 0.2 percent to 1,808.37, while the Dow inched up 5.33 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 16,025.35 and the Nasdaq edged up 6.23 points or 0.2 percent to 4,068.75.