Stocks Close Marginally Lower as Treasuries Surge

The U.S. stock market was under pressure early in Monday's trading session, but a persistent grind higher throughout the afternoon sent stocks out near their highs for the day, but still in negative territory, nonetheless. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed with a loss of around 7 points at 12,653. The widely watched blue-chip index traded in a range between 12,529 and 12,659. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY fell 0.27% to $131.38. Volume was lighter than normal with around 146.6 million SPY shares trading hands compared to a 3-month daily average of 191.8 million. The PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF QQQ, which tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100, gained 0.08% to $60.45. The broader Nasdaq Composite lost 4.61 points to 1,811.94. Year-to-date, the QQQ is up 8.28%. Crude oil fell along with stocks on Monday. NYMEX crude futures shed 0.63% to $98.93 while ICE Brent contracts lost 0.36% to $111.06. In ETF trading, the United States Oil Fund USO fell 0.76% to close at $38.01. Gold also fell slightly on the day. COMEX gold futures lost 0.15% to $1,732.80. The SPDR Gold Trust ETF GLD fell 0.56% to close at $168.03. The GLD is up more than 10% in just the last month. Treasuries were in higher demand, in part due to the weakness in the stock market. The iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT soared 1.19% to $119.50. The yield on the 10-Year Note lost 4.7 basis points to 1.84%. A stronger U.S. Dollar also capped risk appetite on Monday. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF UUP, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, added 0.36% to $22.07. The closely watched EUR/USD pair was last trading at $1.3213.