WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After ending the previous session sharply higher, stocks have shown a significant move back to the downside during trading on Tuesday. The major averages have moved steadily lower for much of the session, sliding firmly into the red.
Railroad stocks have shown a substantial move to the downside on the day, dragging the Dow Jones Railroads Index down by 1.9 percent. With the loss, the index has fallen to its lowest intraday level in a month.
Union Pacific (UNP), FreightCar America (RAIL), and Greenbrier (GBX) are turning in some of the railroad sector's worst performances.
Considerable weakness is also visible among semiconductor stocks, as reflected by the 1.8 percent loss being posted by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index. The loss by the index comes after it ended the previous session at its best closing level in fourteen years.
Software stocks have also come under significant selling pressure, dragging the Dow Jones Software Index. Symantec (SYMC) and Oracle (ORCL) are posting notable losses on the day.
Housing, computer hardware, and biotech stocks are also seeing notable weakness, moving lower along with most of the other major sectors.
Currently, the major averages are just off their lows for the session. The Dow is down 129.47 points or 0.7 percent at 18,159.16, the Nasdaq is down 42.63 points or 0.9 percent at 4,965.47 and the S&P 500 is down 15.99 points or 0.8 percent at 2,101.40.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX