After moving mostly higher over the course of the two previous sessions, stocks pulled back sharply during trading on Wednesday. A negative reaction to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement weighed on the markets in afternoon trading.
Gold stocks showed a substantial move to the downside on the day, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 3.3 percent. With the drop, the index fell to a one-month closing low.
The weakness among gold stocks came as the price of the precious metal ended regular trading moderately higher but pulled back sharply in electronic trading.
Significant weakness also emerged among housing stocks, as reflected by the 3 percent loss posted by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index. Meritage Homes (MTH) and Ryland Group (RYL) posted notable losses.
Commercial real estate stocks also came under considerable selling pressure, resulting in a 3.1 percent drop by the Morgan Stanley REIT Index.
Most of the other major sectors also showed notable moves to the downside on the day, with tobacco, utilities, telecom, and health insurance stocks posting steep losses.
The major averages saw some volatility following the announcement from the Fed, closing firmly in the red. The Dow plunged 206.04 points or 1.4 percent to 15,112.19, the Nasdaq tumbled 38.98 points or 1.1 percent to 3,443.20 and the S&P 500 plummeted 22.88 points or 1.4 percent to 1,628.93.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com