Global shares end last session pre-Christmas down
US stocks edged lower today after the S&P 500 suffered its worst drop since mid-November on continued worry legislators will be unable to reach a deal to avert the "fiscal cliff."
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 27.95 points, or 0.21 percent, to 13,162.89. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 2.55 points, or 0.18 percent, to 1,427.60. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 6.23 points, or 0.21 percent, to 3,014.78.
European shares provisionally finished lower in the last trading session before the Christmas break and with some markets closed and volumes light investors opted to trim positions awaiting a resolution to US budget talks.
A number of European markets such as the French, Dutch, Spanish and UK ones traded for half the session today, while those in Germay, Italy, Austria, Greece, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland were closed.
The FTSEurofirst 300 closed down 1.2 points or 0.1 percent, at 1,137.93 points, just shy of an 19-month high of 1,144.15 hit last week.
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