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 Intersil Corp NASDAQ:ISIL), which jumped 20 percent on news of a buyout, and Medivation MDVN, which added 20 percent on a deal with Pfizer PFE related to its cancer drug. Cotiviti Holdings Inc COTV lost around 9 percent in the wake of a mid-day sell-off and Marathon Oil Corporation MRO fell 7 percent in the wake of a management shakeup. Major Averages 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. Commodities 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. Bonds Treasury prices strongly higher on Monday as money moved into bonds. At the close of the equity session, the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT 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. Currencies The U.S. Dollar slightly higher on the session. At last check, the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF UUP, 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. Volatility and Volume 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 SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY shares traded hands on the session compared to a 3-month daily average of just over 89 million. Just 14 million PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF QQQ shares were traded on the day versus a 3-month average of just under 22 million.