After moving sharply lower at the open, stocks have regained some ground over the course of morning trading on Thursday. The major averages have climbed well off their worst levels of the day but remain stuck in the red.
The sell-off seen at the start of trading reflected lingering concerns about the Federal Reserve scaling back its asset purchase program as well as disappointing Chinese manufacturing data.
Upbeat housing data has contributed to the subsequent recovery attempt by the markets, with a report from the Commerce Department showing that new home sales came in well above economist estimates in the month of April.
Nonetheless, considerable weakness remains visible among steel stocks, which have come under pressure amid concerns about the outlook for global demand. Reflecting the weakness in the sector, the NYSE Arca Steel Index is down by 2 percent.
Utilities stocks have also shown a significant move to the downside on the day, dragging the Dow Jones Utilities Average down by 1.9 percent. Dominion Resources (D) and FirstEnergy (FE) are posting notable losses.
Commercial real estate, brokerage, and railroad stocks are also seeing continued weakness, while some strength is visible among computer hardware, gold, and housing stocks.
The major averages have pulled back off their recovery highs in recent trading but remain well off their lows. The Dow is down 74.87 points or 0.5 percent at 15,232.30, the Nasdaq is down 18.73 points or 0.5 percent at 3,444.57 and the S&P 500 is down 13.17 points or 0.8 percent at 1,642.18.
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