Dow and S&P Finish Close to Flat; Nasdaq Rises

The U.S. stock market spent most of Thursday's trading session consolidating Wednesday's losses and the Dow and S&P finished close to the flatline while the Nasdaq notched a gain of 0.40%. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost a little more than 14 points to close at 13,060. The widely watched blue-chip index traded in a range between 13,012 and 13,088. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF

fell 0.05% to close at $139.79. Volume was lighter than normal with around 136.4 million SPY shares trading hands compared to a 3-month 142.3 million. The PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF

, which tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100, jumped 0.62% to $67.72. The strength in the QQQ was largely attributable to a 1.50% gain in shares of Apple

. Crude bounced back from yesterday's losses. NYMEX crude futures, the U.S. benchmark, added 1.61% to $103.10. Brent contracts traded on the ICE exchange, climbed 0.78% to $123.30. In ETF trading, the United States Oil Fund ETF

added 1.08% to $39.26. Precious metals also rose on the session. COMEX gold futures jumped 1.11% to $1,632.00. Silver futures notched a gain of 2.05% on the day. The heavily traded SPDR Gold Trust ETF

rose 0.73% and closed at $158.31. Treasuries continued yesterday's rally. The iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF

climbed 0.71% to $112.91. The yield on the 10-Year Note fell 4.5 basis to 2.18%. The U.S. Dollar was also stronger on Thursday, which helped to keep the lid on the stock market. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF

, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, rose 0.32% to $22.20. The closely watched EUR/USD pair was last trading at $1.3063.