Major Averages Finish Choppy Trading Day Roughly Flat

(RTTNews) - After turning in a strong performance last week, stocks showed a lack of direction throughout the trading day on Monday before ending the session roughly flat. Traders seemed reluctant to make any significant moves amid another holiday-interrupted week.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as many traders remained away from their desks following the Christmas Day holiday last Wednesday and ahead of the upcoming New Year's Day holiday.

Most of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves, contributing to the lack of direction shown by the broader markets.

Gold stocks saw considerable weakness, however, as a decrease by the price of the precious metal weighed on the sector. With gold for February delivery sliding $10.20 to $1,203.80, the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index tumbled by 2.6 percent.

At the same time, some strength was visible among airline stocks, as reflected by the 1 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Airline Index.

The major averages finished the day mixed, although they all showed only modest moves. While the Dow crept up 25.88 points or 0.2 percent to 16,504.29, the Nasdaq edged down 2.40 points or 0.1 percent to 4,154.20 and the S&P 500 dipped 0.33 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 1,841.07.