After moving sharply lower at the start of trading on Tuesday, stocks saw some volatility over the course of the session but maintained a negative bias throughout the day. Disappointing news from overseas weighed on the markets.
Despite the volatility shown by the broader markets, gold stocks saw substantial weakness throughout the trading session. Reflecting the weakness in the gold sector, the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index plummeted by 3.5 percent.
The weakness among gold stocks came amid a decrease by the price of the precious metal, with gold for August delivery sliding $9 to $1,377 an ounce.
Housing stocks also saw considerable weakness on the day, dragging the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index down by 2.2 percent. With the loss, the index fell to its worst closing level in over a month.
Significant weakness was also visible among semiconductor stocks, as reflected by the 2.2 percent loss posted by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index. Mellanox Technologies (MLNX) helped to lead the sector lower, tumbling by 5.7 percent.
Banking, steel, natural gas, and oil service stocks also ended the day notably lower, moving to the downside along with most of the major sectors.
The major averages ended the day firmly in negative territory although off their lows for the session. The Dow fell 116.57 points or 0.8 percent to 15,122.02, the Nasdaq slid 36.82 points or 1.1 percent to 3,436.95 and the S&P 500 dropped 16.68 points or 1 percent to 1,626.13.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com