Wall Street falls on fiscal cliff paralysis, European shares end flat
US stocks finished slightly lower in a quiet session today as the back-and-forth wrangling over the "fiscal cliff" gave investors little reason to act.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 13.82 points, or 0.11 percent, to 12,951.78 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dipped 2.41 points, or 0.17 percent, to 1,407.05. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 5.51 points, or 0.18 percent, to close at 2,996.69.
European equity indexes closed off multi-month highs today, possibly pausing before a renewed challenge on technical resistance levels into the year-end.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 closed flat at 1,121.25 points, failing to hold on to a 17-month intra-day high of 1,125.79 after Wall Street opened lower.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei average dipped, retreating from a seven-month closing high hit in the previous session, as weak US manufacturing data triggered profit-taking on exporters, which have lately enjoyed a sharp bounce on a softer yen.The broader Topix index was flat at 781.97 in relatively light trade, with 1.74 billion shares changing hands, down from yesterday's 1.87 billion and last week's average of 2.01 billion.
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