Stocks end mostly higher Monday despite resumed U.S. debt selloff

Stocks closed mostly higher to kick off October as a sharp selloff in longer-dated U.S. government debt resumed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.22%
fell about 74 points, or 0.2%, ending near 33,433, according to preliminary FactSet data. The S&P 500 index
SPX,
+0.01%
ended flat at 4,288, while the Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP,
+0.67%
gained 0.7%. Surging long-term borrowing costs remain a key focus in the final quarter of 2023, with the fear being they could derail the U.S. economy and spark more corporate defaults. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield was punching higher to about 4.682% on Monday. Evidence of the debt rout could be found in the popular iShares 20+Year Treasury Bond ETF,
TLT,
-1.98%
which cemented its lowest close since since August 2007 and in the iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF,
AGG,
-0.70%
which finished at its lowest since October 2008, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Investors in short U.S. government T-bills, however, have been mostly insulated from recent volatility, with yields steady in the 5.5% range, according to TradeWeb data.