Stocks Fall as Spanish Bond Yields Rise

The U.S. equity market was focused on European sovereign bond yields again on Wednesday, and an uptick in Spanish borrowing rates led to some risk aversion on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell around 44 points to close at 13,413. The widely watched blue-chip index traded in a range between 13,407 and 13,480.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:SPY) fell 0.62 percent to close at $143.29. Volume was slightly higher than usual with around 126.8 million SPY shares trading hands compared to a 3-month daily average of 123.3 million.

The PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100, lost 0.62 percent to finish at $68.20. Year-to-date, the QQQ is up a little better than 22 percent.

Oil prices also fell on general risk aversion. In the electronic GLOBEX session, NYMEX crude futures were down around 1.44 percent to $90.08. The United States Oil Fund ETF (NYSE:USO) closed down 1.21 percent to $33.34 in New York Stock Exchange trading.

Gold futures were last trading down 0.69 percent in the electronic session to $1,754.30. In ETF trading, the SPDR Gold Trust ETF (NYSE:GLD) lost 0.54 percent to close at $169.81.

The decline in risk assets corresponded with a rise in Treasury prices. The iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (NYSE:TLT) climbed 1.07 percent to $125.04. The yield on the 10-Year Note fell 5.2 basis points to 1.61 percent.

The U.S. Dollar was slightly higher on Wednesday. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF (NYSE:UUP), which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, added 0.18 percent to $21.88. The closely watched EUR/USD pair fell 0.53 percent to $1.2859.