NEW YORK, New York – U.S. stocks were directionless on Monday, with all the indices struggling to make ground.

The main action was on foreign exchange markets, where the U.S. dollar surged against the European and British currencies but was held at bay by the commodity bloc.

“The dollar may be in the early stages of an uptrend if higher inflation should prompt the Fed to retire its bond-buying program and raise interest rates ahead of current market expectations,” Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions told Reuters Thomson Monday.

The euro fell sharply to 1.1363 approaching the New York close Monday. The British pound sagged to 1.3413. The Japanese yen weakened to 114.14. The Swiss franc was sharply lower at 0.9255.

The Canadian dollar edged up to 1.2519. The Australian dollar after hitting a day’s high of ).7370, relaxed to end around 0.7344. The New Zealand dollar was in demand at 0.7041.

On equity markets the Dow Jones dipped 12.86 points or 0.04 percent to 36,087.45.

The Nasdaq Composite edged down 7.11 points or 0.04 percent to 15,853.85.

The Standard and Poor’s 500 finished virtually unchanged, down just 0.05 of a single point to 4,682.45.

Overseas, the FTSE 100 in London gained 0.05 percent. The Greman Dax added 0.25 percent. The Paris-based CAC 40 climbed 0.53 percent.

On Asian markets, the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo rose 166.83 points or 0.56 percent to 29,776.80.

The Australian All Ordinaries climbed 32.40 points or 0.42 percent to 7,798.20.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong traded sideways for most of the day but in the final minutes stretchered out a minor 62.94 points or 0.25 percent gain, to close Monday at 25,390.91.

China’s Shanghai Composite edged down 5.80 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 3,535.30.