Major Averages Close Mixed In Choppy Trade

The major U.S. equity averages finished Thursday's trading session mixed, with the Dow and S&P posting moderate declines, while the Nasdaq added to its recent gains. The Dow shed around 41 points and closed at 11,478. The widely watched blue-chip index traded in a range between 11,377 and 11,518. The S&P 500 ETF

lost 0.20% to $120.51. Volume was quite light with only 210 million SPY shares trading hands compared to a 3-month daily average of 309 million. The PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF

, which tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100, surged 0.92% to $57.12. Volume was also lighter than normal on the Q's with 61 million shares trading hands versus a 3-month daily average of 88.5 million. Crude oil pulled back from the $85 level on the session. NYMEX crude futures lost 1.30% to $84.46. Brent futures shed 0.08% to $111.27. The United States Oil Fund ETF

lost 0.82% to $32.65 in New York Stock exchange trading. Gold fell along with the Dow and S&P. COMEX gold futures lost 0.80% to $1,669.10. The SPDR Gold Trust ETF

fell 0.59% to $162.30. COMEX silver futures notched losses of 2.88% to $31.845. Treasuries rose on the session as a little bit of caution creeped into risk markets. The iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF

gained 1% to $115.63. The yield on the 10-Year Note fell 3 basis points to 2.18%. The U.S. Dollar was essentially unchanged on the day. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF

, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, lost 0.05%. The closely watched EUR/USD pair is currently trading at $1.3788.