With little company-specific or economic news to go on, the bears regained control of Wall Street on Monday, sending stocks down more than 180 points.

The drop was primarily caused by a broad selloff of commodities and metals such as oil, aluminum and copper. The U.S. dollar traded higher.

Today’s Markets

On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 187.13 points, or 2.13%, to 8612.13, the Standard & Poor's 500 fell 22.49 points, or 2.38%, to 923.72 and the Nasdaq Composite tumbled 42.42 points, or 2.28%, to 1816.38. The consumer-friendly FOX 50 slipped 12.42 points, or 1.78%, to 684.81.

While the Dow ended deep in the red, volume on the New York Stock Exchange was much lighter than average, giving some traders confidence that Monday's selloff was more volatility than a definitive change in market sentiment.

"With a lack of news, today's trading session is a lot like last week: unimportant and uneventful," said Michael James, head trader with Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles.

With a lack of major economic data or company news, U.S. traders took cues from the commodities complex and overseas markets. The major European markets in London, Paris and Frankfurt all fell more than 2.5% on concerns that the Eurozone economy may not turn around as soon as previously anticipated.

Industrial metals and oil retreated Monday after the commodities complex had a stellar week last week. Oil futures plunged $1.59, or 2.19%, to $71.16 a barrel while gold futures fell $12.20 to $928.50 a troy ounce.

"For the past two weeks, we've seen stocks move higher on a reflation trade," said Peter Boockvar with Miller Tabak. "It was commodities that kept stocks higher, when those sold off today, we had no choice but to correct."

It was a reflation trade – the commodities that kept stocks higher, when those sold off, we went into correction.

The decline in metals and oil comes after some finance ministers at the G-8 meeting in Italy over the weekend made some references on how countries should begin withdrawing stimulus spending.

Copper futures, which trade as an industrial metal and not as a precious metal, dropped more than 3.6%. Shares of the copper and metal giants Rio Tinto (RIO), BHP Billiton (BHP) and Dow component Alcoa (AA) were all lower by more than 5%.

There was also a commodity-currency trade occurring that helped push oil and the metals lower. The dollar gained 1.48% against the euro,after an official with the International Monetary Fund said in comments in Italy that the dollar is not weak and "correctly valued by the markets."

Commodities, which are priced in dollars, will often trade lower when the U.S. dollar moves higher against major world currencies like the euro. 

Traders also got a worse-than-expected New York Empire State Manufacturing Index this morning, which put some additional pressure on futures. The index fell five points to -9.41 from -4.55 in May, compared to economists' expectations of a reading of -5.1.

Big-cap manufacturers such as Caterpillar (CAT), Deere (DRE) and General Electric (GE) all sank on the report.

Company News

Goldman Sachs downgraded shares of Wal-Mart (WMT) from a "buy" to a "neutral" on Monday.

Six Flags (SIXF) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection over the weekend after the theme park operator was unable to renegotiate its debt with its creditors.

Global Markets

In London, the FTSE 100 dropped 2.61% to 4326.01 while Paris' CAC 40 lost 3.2% to 3219.58 and Germany's DAX fell 3.54% to 4889.94. 

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 Index declined 0.95% to 10039.67 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 2.07% to 18498.96. China's Shanghai Composite gained 1.67% to 2789.55. 

Economic Data

The Treasury Department said foreign demand for assets fell in April. According to the department's TIC survey, net purchases of stocks, bonds by foreigners was $11.2 billion in April, compared to $55.4 billion in March.

The National Association of Home Builders' confidence index fell from a reading of 16 in April to 15 in May. It's the first drop in that index in three months.