Stocks End Flat for Year

The stock market is ending a tumultuous year right where it started.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index closed 2011 a fraction of a point below where it started the year. The S&P closed at 1,257, up 5 points or 0.4 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 69 points, or 0.6 percent, at 12,218. The Dow is up 5.5 percent for the year.

The Nasdaq composite index fell 9 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,605. It lost 1.8 percent for the year.

Rising and falling stocks were about even on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was just 2.2 billion shares, about half of the recent daily average.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)