Stocks Close Unchanged to Start Week

The U.S. stock market went pretty much nowhere on Monday as early losses were erased around mid-day. Stocks fell from their highs during afternoon trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added a little better than a point to close at just below 12,817. The widely watched blue-chip index traded in a range between 12,783 and 12,861.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:SPY) added 0.08 percent to close the session at $138.26. Volume was light with only 94.5 million SPY shares trading hands compared to a three-month daily average of 123 million.

The PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100, lost 0.02 percent to $63.42. Year-to-date, the QQQ is up better than 13 percent but remains off of its best levels of the year.

Crude oil fell slightly on the session. NYMEX crude futures, the U.S. benchmark, lost 0.49 percent to $85.65 while Brent crude contracts fell 0.47 percent to $108.89. The U.S. Oil Fund ETF (NYSE:USO) lost 0.44 percent to close at $31.59.

Precious metals also fell on Monday. COMEX gold futures lost 0.18 percent to $1,727.80 at last check while silver futures were down 0.69 percent to $32.38. The heavily traded SPDR Gold Trust ETF (NYSE:GLD) lost 0.23 percent to $167.43 on the day.

Treasuries were slightly higher on the session. The iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (NYSE:TLT) rose 0.17 percent to $126.19. The yield on the 10-Year Note remained flat at 1.61 percent.

The U.S. dollar was close to unchanged. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF (NYSE:UUP), which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, added 0.05 percent to $22.19. The closely watched EUR/USD pair was last trading at $1.2713.