US stocks closed mostly lower Monday, with the market taking cues from falling oil and gold prices, while investors awaited third-quarter reports, with Dow component Alcoa Inc. unofficially launching earnings season on Tuesday. The Treasury bond market was closed for the Columbus Day holiday and there was no major economic news to guide investors, so Wall Street remained cautious ahead of the flood of third-quarter results.

Earnings are expected to reflect the difficulty some companies have faced -- particularly in the financial and housing sectors -- following upheaval in the credit markets amid overly leveraged debt and defaults in subprime mortgages. The reports will also give insight into the fourth quarter, which market participants predict will bring more robust growth.

Technology stocks were among the few bright spots, with the sector picking up modest gains as search giant Google Inc closed at a record high of $ 610.69. The Dow fell 22.28, or 0.16%, to 14,043.73. Broader stock indexes were mixed. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 5.01, or 0.32%, to 1,552.58, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 7.05, or 0.25%, to 2,787.37. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 4.74, or 0.56%, to 840.14.

Trading volumes were low, with many investors on the sidelines for the holiday. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by nearly 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to 2 billion shares, down from 2.93 billion shares Friday.

There was also light trading because the market is waiting for Tuesday's release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's Sept. 18 meeting, when policy makers lowered interest rates by a half-point. Wall Street hopes the minutes reveal hints that more rate cuts are in store, which could further loosen the credit markets and fuel spending.

Light, sweet crude tumbled fell $ 2.20 to $ 79.02 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Falling oil prices can be taken both positively and negatively by the stock market: they tend to boost consumer spending, but they dampen energy company profits.


Indian ADRs end lower; Sterlite down 4%, MTNL down 3.7%

Indian ADRs ended on a lower note yesterday. But Patni and Infosys bucked the trend posting gains. In the technology pack, Infosys Technologies was up 0.1% at $ 52.48, Patni Computers was up 4.33% at $ 24.32, Satyam Computers was down 1.45% at $ 27.13, while Wipro ended the day 0.53% higher at $ 15.13.

In the non-technology pack, HDFC Bank was down 1.02% at $ 109.82, VSNL was down 1.42% at $ 23.56, ICICI Bank was down 1.66% at $ 52.61, MTNL was down 3.7% at $ 7.80, Tata Motors was down 1.92% at $ 19.37, Dr Reddy's Lab was down 2.26% at $ 16.40 and Sterlite was down 4% at $ 18.96.