While selling pressure has remained relatively subdued, stocks continue to see moderate weakness in mid-afternoon trading on Monday. The major averages are stuck in negative territory, pulling back off last Friday's multi-year closing highs.
The weakness on Wall Street comes as some traders are cashing on the recent strength in the markets, including last week's Federal Reserve-inspired rally.
The Dow and the S&P 500 both ended Friday's trading at their best closing levels in well over four years, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq reached a nearly twelve-year closing high.
Last week's rally came on the heels of the Federal Reserve's announcement of its plans to launch a third round of quantitative easing as part of an effort to boost the sluggish economy.
Steel stocks are turning in some of the market's worst performances on the day, dragging the NYSE Arca Steel Index down by 2.5 percent. Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF) has helped to lead sector lower after J.P. Morgan downgraded its rating on the stock to Neutral from Overweight.
Considerable weakness is also visible among housing stocks, as reflected by the 2.1 percent loss being posted by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index. The loss by the index comes after it ended Friday's trading at a nearly five-year closing high.
Electronic storage, financial, and computer hardware stocks have also come under pressure, moving lower along with most of the major sectors.
The major averages have moved to the downside in recent trading with the Dow and the S&P 500 hitting new lows for the session. The Dow is down 41.00 points or 0.3 percent at 13,552.37, the Nasdaq is down 13.84 points or 0.4 percent at 3,173.29 and the S&P 500 is down 4.41 points or 0.3 percent at 1,461.36.
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