Major Averages Finish Mixed

The stock market was quiet on Thursday, the day after the biggest rally in two years. Investors spent the session digesting yesterdays big move and the major averages meandered harmlessly for most of the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down a little more than 25 points at 12,020. The widely watched blue-chip index traded in a range between 11,974 and 12,062. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY lost 0.02% to close at $124.97. Volume was lighter than normal again with just 175 million SPY shares trading hands compared to a 3-month daily average of 268.6 million. The PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF QQQ, which tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100, added 0.69% to $56.78. The QQQ is currently up 4.26% in 2011. Crude oil prices fell moderately on the day, but remain persistently high. NYMEX crude oil futures fell 0.33% to $100.03 while ICE Brent contracts lost 1.45% to $108.92. The United States Oil Fund ETF USO shed 0.44% and closed at $38.61. Gold was essentially flat on the session. COMEX gold futures shed 0.11% to $1,748.40 while the SPDR Gold Trust ETF GLD declined 0.29% to $169.64. COMEX silver futures lost 0.03% to $32.795 at last check on CME GLOBEX. Treasuries fell on the day as investors moved out of U.S. debt. The iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT lost 0.50% to $117.00. The yield on the 10-Year Note added 2.1 basis points to 2.09%. The U.S. Dollar was essentially unchanged on the day. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF UUP, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, shed 0.05% to $22.05. The closely watched EUR/USD pair is currently trading at $1.3457.