US stock market opens flat with volatility soaring

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - Major indexes in the US stock market opened mostly flat on Monday as soaring volatility has created worries for investors.

The Dow Jones was up only 2 points to 33,075 at 9.40 a.m. EDT (1340GMT), with major investing banking firms Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley falling 1% and 2.9%, respectively.

The S&P 500 was down 3 points, or 0.1%, to 3,971 and the Nasdaq fell 4 points to 13,134 with Novavax plummeting 4.5% but Twitter jumping 5%.

The rise in indexes came as the VIX volatility index soared 7.8% to 20.34. The fear index closed below 20 on Friday, calming investors' worries amid global economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

The yield on 10-year Treasury notes was up 1% to 1.676% at the time.

After seeing its price plummeting more than 10% in recent weeks, Bitcoin saw a rapid recovery to above $58,000 mark for over a 4% daily gain, while some cryptocurrencies were up as much as 18%.

Precious metals have continued their decline, as gold was down 1.3% to $1,710 per ounce, and silver fell 1.9% to $24.5.