Stocks Close Roughly Flat Following Choppy Trading Day - U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - Following the strong performance that was seen last week, stocks showed a lack of direction throughout much of the trading day on Monday. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before ending the day roughly flat.

Halting a seven-day winning streak, the Dow edged down 15.48 points or 0.1 percent to 18,038.23. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq inched up 0.05 points to 4,806.91, and the S&P 500 ticked up 1.80 points or 0.1 percent to a new record closing high of 2,090.57.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as many traders stayed on the sidelines amid a lack of major U.S. economic data on the day.

Reports on consumer confidence, pending home sales, and manufacturing activity are due to be released later in the week, but trading activity is likely to remain light ahead of New Year's Eve and the New Year's Day holiday.

Uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets may also have contributed to the lackluster performance following the recent upward trend.

Meanwhile, traders largely shrugged off concerns about the political situation in Greece despite news that Greek politicians once again failed to elect a new president.

Peter Boockvar, managing director at the Lindsey Group, said, "The third time was not the charm for PM Samaras and the Greek government to elect a new President after Parliament fell 12 votes short of the 180 needed to elect Stavros Dimas."

"His position is mostly symbolic but what comes next is an early election for Prime Minister where the very far left Syriza party is in the lead according to the polls," he added.

Boockvar said what happens in Greece shouldn't matter much economically for the rest of the world but pointed to sympathy selling in Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Sector News

Despite the lack of direction shown by the broader markets, utilities stocks saw significant strength on the day. Reflecting the strength in the sector, the Dow Jones Utilities Average advanced by 1.2 percent to a new record closing high.

American Water Works (AWK) helped to lead the utilities sector higher, with the water and wastewater services provider jumping by 3.4 percent.

Considerable strength was also visible among natural gas stocks, as reflected by the 1.2 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index. The strength in the sector came as natural gas for February delivery surged up by $0.166 to $3.199 per million BTUs.

On the other hand, gold stocks saw significant weakness on the day, moving lower along with the price of the precious metal. With gold for February delivery falling $13.40 to $1,181.90 an ounce, the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index dropped by 2.7 percent.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher on Monday. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index and Australia's All Ordinaries Index surged up by 1.8 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively. However, Japan's Nikkei 225 Index bucked the uptrend and fell by 0.5 percent.

The major European markets all moved higher over the course of the session. While the German DAX Index inched up by 0.1 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.4 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.

In the bond market, treasuries saw some strength on the day, extending the modest upward move seen last Friday. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell by 4.3 basis points to 2.207 percent.

Looking Ahead

U.S. economic data may attract some attention on Tuesday, with traders likely to keep an eye on reports on home prices and consumer confidence.