Investing.com - The S&P 500 closed flat Monday as concerns over rising U.S. bond yields and a wobble in global markets weighed on sentiment.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose about 0.15%. The S&P 500 closed flat, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.67%.
Stocks clawed back the bulk of their losses moments before the close, even as technology stocks fell victim to selling pressure amid investor fears that U.S. government bond yields will continue to rise, denting demand for riskier investment like stocks.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stock was in the spotlight in late-afternoon trade amid a double whammy of negative reports.
CNBC reported, citing execs at multiple media agencies, that advertisers were ditching Google search for Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) ads, while The Wall Street Journal said the tech giant covered up a software glitch on its social media platform, Google+, which had exposed the data of about 500,000 users.
U.S. Treasuries, which did not trade on Monday as the bond market was shut for Columbus Day, rose to multi-year highs last week, sparking a selloff in stocks.
The bearish sentiment in stocks was underlined by a jump in the so-called fear index, or CBOE Volatility Index, on the back of a wobble in global markets.
European markets slumped on Italy budget concerns, while Chinese stocks saw sharp declines, even as the People's Bank of China (PBOC) introduced pro-market measures on Sunday.
There were some bright spots, however, as financials tacked on gains on a rally in banks, some of which report quarterly earnings later this week.
JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Citigroup (NYSE:C) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) closed higher.
Energy stocks, meanwhile, closed well above lows after oil prices pared some losses heading into settlement, shrugging off concerns that the U.S. may not go full throttle with sanctions on Iran.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude futures for November delivery fell 5 cents to settle at $74.29 a barrel.
In the corporate news, General Electric (NYSE:GE) stock rallied after Barclays (LON:BARC) upgraded its rating on the stock to overweight, saying that most of the bad news, including a likely dividend cut, and lower earnings had been priced into the shares.
General Electric shares have rallied sharply since the company fired John Flannery as CEO last week and replaced him with Lawrence Culp.
Top S&P 500 Gainers and Losers Today:
Arconic (NYSE:ARNC), H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) and GE (NYSE:GE) were among the top S&P 500 gainers for the session.
Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM), Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT) and Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) were among the worst S&P 500 performers of the session.