Stocks Fall In Light Trade

A day after a highly anticipated (and fretted about) Greek debt deal was announced, which briefly pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average over 13,000, the U.S. stock market recorded modest losses. The Dow shed 27 points and closed at just above 12,938. The widely watched blue-chip index traded in a range between 12,915 and 12,978 in a light news day. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY fell 0.32% to $136.03. Volume was light with around 123.8 million SPY shares trading hands compared to a 3-month daily average of 165 million. The PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF QQQ, which tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100, lost 0.46% to $63.32. Year-to-date, the tech heavy QQQ has risen 13.42%. Crude oil futures were mixed with U.S. benchmark crude falling slightly while Brent contracts rose. NYMEX crude futures fell 0.28% to $105.95 while ICE Brent contracts gained 0.81% to $122.64. In ETF trading, the United States Oil Fund ETF USO closed Wednesday's trading session flat at $40.59. Gold and silver were also headed in different directions on the day. COMEX gold futures added 1.07% to $1,777.30 while COMEX silver fell 0.49% to $34.33. The heavily traded SPDR Gold Trust ETF GLD climbed 1.12% to $172.94. The iShares Silver Trust ETF SLV, which rose better than 3% yesterday, notched a gain of 0.12% to close at $33.44. Treasuries rose on the session after falling on Tuesday. The iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT gained 1.28% to $116.76. The yield on the 10-Year Note fell 5.6 basis points to 2.00%. The U.S. Dollar was marginally stronger on Wednesday which helped to keep a lid on the stock market. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF UUP, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, added 0.14% to $22.07. The closely watched EUR/USD pair was last trading at $1.3244.