Stocks showed a substantial downturn over the course of the trading day on Wednesday after seeing some strength in morning trading. Renewed worries about the Federal Reserve tapering its asset purchase program contributed to the sharp pullback by the markets.
While most of the major sectors came under pressure on the day, commercial real estate stocks showed a substantial move to the downside. The Morgan Stanley REIT Index tumbled by 2.6 percent after reaching a five-year intraday high in early trading.
Networking stocks also saw significant weakness, dragging the NYSE Arca Networking Index down by 2.2 percent. Arris Group (ARRS) helped to lead the sector lower, dropping by 7.6 percent.
Considerable weakness also emerged among oil service stocks, which moved sharply lower along with the price of crude oil. With crude for July delivery tumbling $1.90 to $94.28 a barrel, the Philadelphia Oil Service Index fell by 2 percent.
Software, utilities, natural gas, and semiconductor stocks also showed notable moves to the downside on the day, reflecting the broad based weakness that emerged on Wall Street.
The major averages climbed off their worst levels going into the close but still ended the day firmly negative. The Dow fell 80.41 points or 0.5 percent to 15,307.17, the Nasdaq tumbled 38.82 points or 1.1 percent to 3,463.30 and the S&P 500 slid 13.81 points or 0.8 percent to 1,655.35.
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