U.S. stocks closed in the red Monday as investors began the first week of the new year with some light selling. In U.S. economic news, the Senate was expected to confirm Janet Yellen to serve as the next chair of the Federal Reserve (Fed), after Ben Bernanke's second term ends in January. The dollar lost ground against the euro, the pound, and the yen. Light sweet crude oil for February delivery dropped 53 cents to $93.43 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures fell 60 cents to $1,238.00 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 44.89, or 0.27 percent, to 16,425.10. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 4.60, or 0.25 percent, to 1,826.77. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index lost 18.23, or 0.44 percent, to 4,113.68.
