U.S. market indexes were lower Monday to start the week as few catalysts existed in trading for the day. For the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost -8.01 points or -0.05 percent to close at 17,492.93. The S&P 500 was also down, closing at 2,048.04 for a loss of -4.28 points or -0.21 percent. The Nasdaq Composite closed lower at 4,765.78 for a loss of -3.78 points or -0.08 percent.

Source: DJIA, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite. Google Finance.

Monday’s Market Movers

On Monday, the leading economic report for the day from Markit was the PMI Manufacturing Index which was reported at 50.5 as expected given consensus of 51. While at consensus the report does show continued flattening in manufacturing in the U.S. which is consistent with slower total production.

In the day’s trading, Bayer was one of the most actively traded stocks as the company announced its $62 billion bid for Monsanto. Shares of Bayer traded lower on France’s stock exchange, down -4.32 points or -4.82 percent to 85.32 EUR. Monsanto traded higher at $105.99 for a gain of 4.47 points or 4.40 percent. In the materials sector, stocks traded higher overall for the day with a sector gain of 1.17 percent.

Other stocks actively traded for the day in the Dow Jones Industrial Average included DuPont, Apple, Caterpillar and 3M. DuPont gained 1.90 percent. Apple was 1.27 percent higher. Caterpillar gained 0.76 percent and 3M gained 0.67 percent.

For the day, technology stocks were broadly lower with the sector down 0.19 percent. The Nasdaq 100 closed at 4,355.10 for a loss of -7.80 points or -0.18 percent. Cognizant Technology and Microsoft led losses in the sector for the day. Cognizant Technology was down 1.91 percent and Microsoft was down 1.17 percent in the technology sector.

In commodities, gold traded lower as evidenced by the SPDR Gold Trust which reported a loss of -0.34 points or -0.28 percent. The dollar was also lower for the day as the U.S. Dollar Index was down -0.08 percent to 95.27.

Small-Cap Stocks

In small-caps, the Russell 2000 followed the day’s trend lower closing at 1,111.37 for a loss of -0.91 points or -0.08 percent. The S&P 600 closed at 679.49 for a loss of -1.40 points or -0.21 percent. The Dow Jones Small-Cap Growth TSM Index closed at 6,828.01 for a loss of 2.21 points or 0.03 percent. The Dow Jones Small-Cap Value TSM closed at 8,047.48 for a loss of -18.58 points or -0.23 percent.

Other Notable Indexes

Other notable index closes included the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index which closed at 1,446.44 for a loss of -3.67 points or -0.25 percent; the Russell 3000 which closed at 1,205.67 for a loss of -2.41 points or -0.20 percent; and the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index which closed at 578.04 for a loss of -1.85 points or -0.32 percent.