Stocks Grind Higher As NASDAQ Leads

The U.S. stock market continued its recent strong rally on Monday as stocks recorded moderate gains. An announcement from the world's largest company, Apple Computer

, that it would begin share buybacks and institute a dividend helped spark risk appetite on Wall Street. While the Dow Jones Industrial Average only managed a meager gain, the S&P and NASDAQ rose 0.40% and 0.75%, respectively. The Dow added a little more than 6 points, or 0.05%, to close at 13,239. The widely watched blue-chip average traded in a range between 13,208 and 13,269. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF

rose 0.39% and closed at $140.85. Volume was light with just 125 million SPY shares trading hands compared to a 3-month daily average of 143.6 million. The PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF

, which tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100, added 0.71% to finish at $66.99. The QQQ was propelled in part by the performance of AAPL, which added 2.65% to $601.10 in the wake of the announcement from the company. Crude oil was higher on the session and is approaching the $108 level. NYMEX crude futures, the U.S. benchmark, rose 0.77% to $107.88. ICE Brent contracts registered a 0.36% decline to $125.36. In ETF trading, the United States Oil Fund

rose 0.63% to $41.29. Precious metals benefitted from healthy risk appetite on Wall Street on Monday. COMEX gold futures gained 0.53% to $1,664.60 while silver futures rose 1.03% to $32.94. The heavily traded SPDR Gold Trust ETF

finished the trading session with a gain of 0.18% to $161.59. Treasuries continued to slide on Monday as investors re-allocate money out of bonds and into stocks and commodities. The iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF

fell 1.19% to $110.10. The yield on the 10-Year Note rose 8.3 basis points to 2.38%. A weak U.S. Dollar helped to spur risk appetite on Monday. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF

, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, shed 0.59% to $22.05. The closely watched EUR/USD pair is currently trading at $1.3238 after rising 0.51% on Monday.