NEW YORK, New York - A sharp rise in U.S. Treasury yields kept buyers at bay on Wall Street on Monday.

"Most stock market participants are a little shook ... by the huge increase in yields for a second straight day," George Cipolloni, portfolio manager at Penn Mutual Asset Management told CNBC Monday. "The move in the 2-year over two days is incredible. And I think that's driving most of the moves."

The Nasdaq Composite shed 119.50 points or 1.00 percent to 11,887.45.

The Standard and Poor's 500 let go 25.42 points or 0.61 percent to 4,111.06.

The Dow Jones industrials gave up 34.99 points or 0.10 percent to 33,891.02.

The U.S. dollar capitalized on the firmer Treasury yields. The euro buckled to 1.0730 approaching the U.S. close Monday. The British pound dived to 1.2022. The Japanese yen was sharply lower at 132.60. The Swiss franc dropped to 0.9282.

The Canadian dollar weakened to 1.3445. The Australian dollar dropped to 0.6883. The New Zealand dollar was robustly sold off to 0.6302.

On overseas equity markets, the FTSE 100 in London dropped 0.82 percent. The Germ,an Dax declined 0.84 points. In Paris, France the CAC 40 was off 1.34 percent.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong had a bad day, losing 438 points or 2.02 percent to 21,222.16. China's Shanghai Composite retreated 0.76 percent.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225, going against the trend, advanced 184.19 points or 0.67 percent to 27,693.65.

The Singapore Straits Times Index also finished in the black, albeit by 1.64 points or 0.05 percent.

The Australian All Ordinaries fell 0.33 percent. Across the Tasman, New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 gained 0.37 percent. South Korea's Kospi Composite dived 1.70 percent.