Wall Street started the week off on an unenthusiastic note, with all three major indexes holding near their midday marks. The Dow settled snapped an eight-day win streak, the S&P 500 finished marginally lower, while the Nasdaq logged a modest win. Elsewhere, the Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) logged its first win in nine sessions.

In other news, a New York Federal Reserve survey showed consumers last month upped their price increase expectations for the near- and long-term, while cocoa prices fell more than 19% today, marking their biggest single-day decline since 1980.

GOLD PRICES RETREAT FROM LAST WEEK'S HIGHS

Oil prices trended higher today, with June-dated West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude adding 86 cents, or 1.1%, at $79.12 a barrel. The pop followed signs of soft fuel demand against expectations of production cuts later this year.

Gold prices turned in their worst daily loss of the month, pulling back from Friday's three-week highs after investors moved to take profit ahead of this week's inflation data. June-dated gold futures shed $32, or 1.4%, to trade at $2,343 per ounce today, and gained 2.9% this week.  

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