Global stocks end year down
The broad S&P 500 endured wild daily swings, but a year of drama left the index on Friday pretty much where it started. Not since 1970 has the index ended a year as close to unchanged as it did this year.
For Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 70.99 points, or 0.58 percent, at 12,216.05, based on the latest available data. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 5.49 points, or 0.43 percent, at 1,257.53. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 8.59 points, or 0.33 percent, at 2,605.15.
European shares rose but still recorded their biggest annual drop since the onset of the financial crisis as debt tensions in the euro zone strained the financial sector and threatened to derail a fragile economic recovery.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares ended the day 0.8 percent higher at 1,000.39 in volume at less than a quarter of the 90-day average as the UK and German markets closed early ahead of the New Year weekend.
For the year the index fell 10.7, the most since 2008, with cyclical stocks among the worst hit as government austerity measures and a lending squeeze in the euro zone curbed economic growth.
Japan's leading share average ended higher but marked a 17% loss for 2011, a tumultuous year in which massive natural disasters triggered a nuclear crisis and Europe's debt turmoil drained volumes, leaving investors uncertain of a turnaround next year.
The Nikkei edged up 0.7% to 8,455.35 on the back of a recent run of positive economic data out of the United States, although it failed to top its closely watched 25-day moving average near 8,479. The broader Topix added 0.9% to 728.61.
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