Few Winners Emerge in Flat Holiday Session

Monday's market churn left stocks and ETFs little better than their opening prices, with a flat finish offering few clear winners or losers.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 21 points at 9886 after a brief swing into negative territory late in the day. The Nasdaq finished flat at 2139, and the S&P 500 ended up 5 at 1076.

The dollar, which has been on a long-term slide, was slightly stronger against the euro and the yen. The Dollar Index, which tracks the dollar against a basket of major currencies, is down 5.9% year to date.

Stephen Pope, chief global market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald Europe, said a weaker dollar is "allowing non-dollar-based investors to acquire U.S. assets and 'cheap valuations' when reflected back into their base currency. The S&P 500 is on a price/earnings basis trading at a discount to the MSCI World Index of 23 developing countries."

Companies scheduled to report earnings this week include JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Intel (INTC), Google (GOOG) and Goldman Sachs (GS).

For a detailed rundown on Monday’s trading session see our market story. /investing/stocks/market-update-monday-oct-12-2009-19810/

The PowerShares DB Multi-Sector Commodity Trust fund (DBA) rose 4.3% and the commodities-heavy Market Vectors Russia fund (RSX) climbed 2.7% as the weak dollar spurred investors into metals, energy and agricultural products.

The sputtering finish of the Columbus Day trading session left the iPath Exchange-Traded Notes S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Index fund (VXX) down 3.4%. The iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index fund (FXI) was one of the few heavily traded decliners, dipping 1.0% on a 0.6% dip of the Shanghai Composite index.

Earnings and Conference Calls
Audiovox, Bank of the Ozarks, CSX, Domino's, Exfo Electro-Optical Engineering, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, KMG Chemicals, NovaGold Resources, Posco

Economic Data
7:45 a.m. ICSC-Goldman Store Sales
8:55 a.m. Redbook