Major Averages Set Fresh Intraday Lows

Stocks are seeing additional selling pressure in late morning trading on Monday after posting substantial gains in the previous session. Weakness in the financial markets is once again fueling the sell off, as investors have shrugged off a better than expected report on existing home sales.

Bank and brokerage stocks are seeing significant selling pressure after Fitch Ratings put AIG's (AIG) credit ratings on negative watch. The S&P Bank Index is down 2.4 percent, while the Amex Securities Broker/Dealer Index is falling 2.3 percent. Health insurance, steel and disk drive stocks are lower as well. The Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payor Index is down 2.7 percent, the Amex Steel Index is down 2.4 percent and the Amex Disk Drive Index is down 2.1 percent. The major averages have continued to show weakness in recent trading, falling to fresh intraday lows in the past few minutes. The Dow is currently down 140.04 at 11,488.02, the Nasdaq is down 39.58 at 2,375.13 and the S&P 500 is down 16.14 at 1,276.06. Copyright(c) 2008 RealTimeTraders.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved