Stocks Fall On European Debt Crisis

The major averages fell sharply on Monday as worries intensified over the European debt crisis, but were able to recover from their worst levels by the close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down around 95 points to 12,385. The widely watched blue-chip index traded in a range between 12,296 and 12,475. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY fell 0.82% to $130.61. Volume was on the heavy side with around 197 million SPY shares trading hands compared to a 3-month daily average of 180.7 million. The PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF QQQ, which tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100, lost 0.54% to $57.54. Crude oil fell on the day along with most commodities. NYMEX crude futures lost 1.14% to $96.13. The United States Oil Fund ETF USO fell 1.42% to $37.59. Gold surged to new all time highs on Monday. COMEX gold futures gained 0.99% to $1,605.80. The SPDR Gold Trust ETF GLD surged 0.88% to $156.57. Treasuries fell on the session. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT lost 0.97% to $95.24. The yield on the 10-Year Note rose 2.2 basis points to 2.93%. The U.S. Dollar moved higher on the session as the Euro weakened. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF UUP, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, added 0.23% to $21.48. The closely watched EUR/USD pair is currently trading at $1.4111.