After moving mostly lower in early trading on Wednesday, stocks are turning in a lackluster performance in the late morning. The major averages have climbed off their lows for the session and have turned mixed on the day.
The early weakness was partly due to continued reaction to Tuesday's comments from Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke, who acknowledged that the economic recovery has been "uneven" and "frustratingly slow" but indicated that the Fed is not likely to take additional steps to prop up the economy.
Gold stocks continue to see substantial weakness on the day, with the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 2 percent after hitting a four-month intraday low. The weakness in the sector comes as gold for August delivery has fallen $7.30 to $1,536.70 an ounce.
Significant weakness also remains visible among networking stocks, as reflected by the 2.1 percent loss by the NYSE Arca Networking Index. Within the sector, Ciena (CIEN) is down by 13.9 percent after reporting a wider than expected second quarter loss and providing disappointing third quarter guidance.
While electronic storage, semiconductor, and housing stocks also continue to post notable losses, energy stocks have moved to the upside on the day amid a sharp rise by the price of crude oil. Crude for July delivery is up $1.44 at $100.53 a barrel on news that OPEC is leaving its production quotas unchanged.
The major averages are currently on opposite sides of the unchanged line, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq stuck in the red. The Nasdaq is down 9.30 points or 0.3 percent at 2,692.26, while the Dow is up 17.75 points or 0.2 percent at 12,088.56 and the S&P 500 is up 1.19 points or 0.1 percent at 1,286.13.
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