US stocks closed nearly unchanged last night after a day of uneven trading plagued by investors’ fears about the approaching “fiscal cliff”.
The Dow Jones industrial average finished down 0.23 points at 12,815.16. It had spent the day trading gains and losses, never rising more than 46 points or falling more than 32.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index edged up 0.15 point to 1,380. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.61 to 2,904.26.
The closing level of the Dow was revised twice after trading closed. The New York Stock Exchange experienced a trading glitch during the day, forcing it to alter its normal procedure for determining the closing prices of some stocks.
Trading was very light. The US federal government and the US bond market were closed for Veterans Day, and no economic reports were released.