Stocks gave back ground in the latter part of the trading day on Monday but still ended the session mostly higher after seeing early strength. With the gains on the day, the markets extended the strong upward move that was seen last Friday.
Steel stocks turned in some of the market's best performances on the day, benefiting from optimism about the outlook for demand. Reflecting the strength in the steel sector, the NYSE Arca Steel Index advanced by 2.6 percent to a one-month closing high.
AK Steel (AKS) and A.M. Castle (CAS) helped to lead the steel sector higher, surging up by 7.5 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively.
Considerable strength was also visible among networking stocks, as reflected by the 2.7 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Networking Index. Strong gains by Acme Packet (APKT) and Emulex (ELX) helped lift the index to its best closing level in a month.
Gold stocks also saw significant strength on the day, moving higher along with the price of the precious metal. With gold for December delivery climbing $6.90 to $1,616.20 an ounce, the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index rose by 2.5 percent.
Airline, software, and computer hardware stocks also posted notable gains, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.
The major averages showed a notable move to the downside going into the close but ended the day in positive territory. The Dow edged up 21.34 points or 0.2 percent to 13,117.51, the Nasdaq rose 22.01 points or 0.7 percent to 2,989.91 and the S&P 500 crept up 3.24 points or 0.2 percent to 1,394.23.
Despite the late day pullback, the major averages all ended the session at their highest closing levels in three months.
by RTT Staff Writer
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