Stocks Finish Lackluster Session Modestly Lower - U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - After ending the previous session at record closing highs, stocks gave back some ground during trading on Monday. The major averages reached record intraday highs but pulled back to end the day in negative territory.

The Dow dipped 54.67 points or 0.2 percent to 23,273.96, the Nasdaq fell 42.23 points or 0.6 percent to 6,586.83 and the S&P 500 slid 10.23 points or 0.4 percent to 2,564.98.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seem reluctant to make significant moves amid a quiet day on the U.S. economic front.

The economic calendar will pick up in the comings days with the release of reports on durable goods orders, new home sales, pending home sales, and consumer sentiment.

Traders may also have been looking ahead to release of earnings news from big name companies such as Caterpillar (CAT), General Motors (GM), McDonald's (MCD), AT&T (T), Boeing (BA), Coca-Cola (KO), Visa (V), Ford (F), Amazon (AMZN), Intel (INTC), Microsoft (MSFT), Exxon Mobil (XOM), and Merck (MRK).

Energy, airline and gold stocks saw considerable weakness on the day, while strength was visible among computer hardware stocks.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Monday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index jumped by 1.1 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slid by 0.6 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.3 percent, the German DAX Index inched up by 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index closed just above the unchanged line. In the bond markets, treasuries ended the day roughly flat after showing a lack of direction over the course of the session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged down by less than a basis point to 2.376 percent.