NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market broke through two milestones Monday before giving up nearly all its gains late in the day.

Stocks rose from the opening bell, lifting the Dow Jones industrial average above 16,000 for the first time and the Standard & Poor's 500 index past 1,800, two big markers in a historic bull market. But by the end of day, both indexes had fallen below those levels.

"The market is always a little hesitant when it gets to round numbers," says Ed Cowart, managing director at Eagle Asset Management. "You don't want to be the first guy buying at 16,000 on the Dow."

The Dow managed to eke out a gain over Friday's close with a late push higher, ending just 24 points shy of 16,000. Both the Dow and the S&P 500 are on track for their best year in a decade and have soared more than 140 percent since bottoming out in the Great Recession more than four years ago.

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