Market Wrap for Monday, May 6: Stocks Little Changed; S&P Closes at New All-Time High

The U.S. stock market was little changed on Monday in a light volume, slow news day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average recorded a small loss, while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 both rose modestly on the session. The S&P closed at a new all-time high to start the trading week.

Investors are still focused on quarterly earnings reports and a full slate of companies were due to report after the closing bell.

Major Averages

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 5 points, or 0.03 percent, to 14,969.

The S&P 500 added 3 points, or 0.19 percent, to just below 1,618.

The Nasdaq Composite climbed 14 points, or 0.42 percent, to 3,393.

Commodities

Crude oil prices rose on to start the week. Late in the day, NYMEX crude futures were trading up 0.27 percent to $95.87. Brent crude oil futures had climbed 1.17 percent and were last trading at $105.41. Natural gas recorded a moderate loss on the session, and was last down 0.42 percent to $4.02.

Precious metals were mixed on Monday, with gold posting a modest gain and silver a modest loss. Near the close of equities, COMEX gold futures were up 0.29 percent to $1,468.40. Silver had fallen 0.27 percent to $23.95. Late in the day, copper futures had lost 0.45 percent.

The grains complex was hit hard on the day. At last check, CBOT corn futures had lost a little less than 4 percent while wheat was down 2.53 percent. Movers in soft commodities included sugar and orange juice. At last check, sugar futures had added 1.60 percent while orange juice concentrate contracts were down roughly 2.30 percent.

Bonds

Bonds followed up on Friday's big loss with modest price declines. Near the close of equity trading, the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (NYSE:TLT) had shed 0.23 percent to $120.61. Lower prices pushed yields up on the session.

Although the 2-Year Note yield was unchanged at 0.21 percent, the yield on the 5-Year Note rose one basis point to 0.74 percent. Both the 10-Year Note yield and 30-Year Bond yield rose three basis points to 1.77 percent and 2.98 percent, respectively.

Currencies

The U.S. dollar was slightly higher on Monday. Approaching the closing bell, the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF (NYSE:UUP), which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, as up 0.18 percent to $22.36.

The closely watched EUR/USD pair was last trading down 0.24 percent to $1.3078. Other movers included the USD/JPY, which rose 0.37 percent, and the AUD/USD, which fell 0.69 percent.

Volatility and Volume

The VIX moved lower on Monday. Late in the day, the widely watched measure of expectations for market volatility was down a little more than 1 percent to 12.68.

Volume was very light to start the week. Only around 69 million SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:SPY) shares traded hands compared to a 3-month daily average of 128 million.

Stock Movers

Shares of MBIA (NYSE:MBI) soared on Monday after the company reached a comprehensive settlement deal with Bank of America related to faulty mortgages issued by Countrywide and insured by MBIA.

Mobile Mini (NASDAQ:MINI) jumped almost 14 percent after the company reported better than expected fiscal first-quarter results.

Renren (NYSE:RENN) climbed roughly 11 percent on Monday amid speculation that the company will exceed its own first-quarter sales estimates.

Geospace Technologies (NASDAQ:GEOS) lost 9 percent on the day, giving back some of its gains from last Friday which came in the wake of a bullish earnings report.

Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) fell 6.50 percent after analysts at Piper Jaffray speculated that the company could miss sales estimates for the June quarter.

Himax Technologies (NASDAQ:HIMX) fell more than 9 percent ahead of the company's quarterly earnings report which is due out on Tuesday morning.