Monday Market Wrap: Stocks Closed Mixed in Quiet Trade

The major U.S. equity averages closed on either side of the unchanged mark on Monday as the Dow and S&P recorded small losses and the Nasdaq finished the session with a modest gain. Losses on the day were concentrated in the energy sector, which lost more than 1 percent. Big gainers on the day included

NASDAQ:ISIL), which jumped 20 percent on news of a buyout, and

, which added 20 percent on a deal with

related to its cancer drug.

lost around 9 percent in the wake of a mid-day sell-off and

fell 7 percent in the wake of a management shakeup.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 23 points, or 0.12 percent, to 18,529. The S&P 500 shed a little over a point to close at 2,183. The Nasdaq rose 6 points, or 0.12 percent, to 5,245.

Commodity prices were lower on the day with the Bloomberg Commodity Index shedding 0.65 percent. NYMEX crude oil futures fell around 3 percent to $47.05 while Brent contracts lost 3.36 percent to finish at $49.17. Natural gas futures jumped 3.68 percent to $2.68. Precious metals were lower on Monday. COMEX gold futures fell 0.27 percent to $1,342.60 while silver shed 2.24 percent to $18.89. Copper futures also declined more than 1 percent on the day. In the grains complex, corn and wheat both traded lower to start the trading week. Corn futures lost 0.36 percent to $3.4250 per bushel. Wheat contracts fell 2.14 percent to $4.3525.

Treasury prices strongly higher on Monday as money moved into bonds. At the close of the equity session, the

had climbed 0.84 percent to $139.88. Treasury yields were as follows on Monday afternoon: The yield on the 2-Year Note was 0.76 percent. The 5-Year Note was yielding 1.15 percent. The 10-Year Note was last yielding 1.55 percent while the 30-Year Bond yield was 2.24 percent.

The U.S. Dollar slightly higher on the session. At last check, the

, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, was up 0.12 percent to $24.45. The closely watched EUR/USD pair fell 0.03 percent to $1.1322.

The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) climbed on the day despite the mixed stock market. Nevertheless, the VIX remains near 52-week low levels. At last check, it was up more than 8 percent to 12.29. Volume remianed lighter than normal to start the week. Only around 55.5 million

shares traded hands on the session compared to a 3-month daily average of just over 89 million. Just 14 million

shares were traded on the day versus a 3-month average of just under 22 million.