Stocks on Monday continued their broad decline in heavy trading volume, reflecting last week’s sudden shift in investor sentiment, to bearish from bullish.
Earlier in the day, stocks lost ground in Asia and Europe. But modest gains in commodity prices during Monday’s futures trading lifted U.S. stocks off their lows for the day.
Treasury securities, which were eroding less than two weeks ago, rallied, as investors sought a safe harbor in government debt.
The closely watched yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dropped below the 5 percent mark during the session, but ended at 5.04 percent, down from 5.20 percent on May 12.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 18.73 points, to 11,125.33. Aluminum-maker Alcoa led the losers among the 30 Dow stocks, as industrial metal prices swooned again.
Exxon Mobil was one of the Dow’s winners. Shares rose 33 cents, to $60.78. In futures trading, crude oil for June delivery added 70 cents, to $69.23 a barrel.
The Dow Jones utilities average gained 2.80, to 399.55, as investors targeted dividend-paying utility stocks as a point of shelter.
Among the losers in Monday’s trading were brokerages and financial exchanges. Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings dropped $13.97, or 3.1 percent, to $435.65.
Among local stocks, chewing gum giant Wm. Wrigley Jr. gained $1, to $47.26, as investors applauded the company’s plan to repurchase as much as $500 million of its $13.1 billion in outstanding shares.
New York Stock Exchange trading volume reached 2.03 billion shares, the third 2 billion-plus share day in the last four NYSE sessions. Losers outnumbered winners by a 2-1 ratio among NYSE stocks.
Nasdaq trading volume totaled 2.26 billion shares, as losers topped winners by a more than 2-1 ratio.
Treasury auction: Interest rates declined at the Treasury’s weekly auction of 3- and 6-month bills. The discount rate on 3-month bills was 4.7 percent, down from 4.74 percent at last week’s auction. The rate for 6-month bills was 4.81 percent, down from 4.82 percent.
The coupon-equivalent investment rates at Monday’s auction were 4.82 percent for 3-month bills and 5 percent for 6-month bills.
