Dow Closes Down 69, Nasdaq Drops 9

NEW YORK (AP) — 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 1,257.60, up 5.42 points or 0.4 percent. It ended 2010 at nearly the exact same level, at 1,257.64. Its loss for the year is 0.04 point.

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.

McDonald’s Corp. was the biggest winner in the Dow this year with a gain of 31 percent. Bank of America Corp. was the worst, down 58 percent.

The conventional wisdom is the more risk, the greater the potential rewards. But the opposite is proving true this year: Investors playing it safe have gained the most.

The most dull and conservative of stocks – utilities – gained 15 percent, the largest gain of the ten industry sectors in the S&P 500 index. Other winning groups are consumer staples and health care companies, up 11 percent and 10 percent in 2011 respectively.

In Europe, many of the biggest markets ended down for the year. Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 5.6 percent, Germany’s DAX 14.7 percent.

Trading has been quiet this week with many investors away on vacation. Volume on the New York Stock Exchange has been about half of its daily average. Markets will be closed Monday in observance of New Year’s Day.

Better news on the job market and home sales lifted stocks Thursday, pushing the Dow up 135 points. On Friday Ford reported that its sales topped 2 million this year for the first time since 2007. Ford fell 0.1 percent.

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.

In other corporate news:

– Sears Holdings Corp. fell 3 percent to $31.78 after Fitch Ratings downgraded the company’s credit rating to “junk.” Sears has plunged 30 percent this week after disclosing that it would close more than 100 Sears and Kmart stores because of weak holiday sales.

– Diamond Foods Inc. jumped 2.4 percent to $32.27. Rumors have been circulating that the hedge fund manager David Einhorn has acquired a stake in the food company that makes Emerald Nuts.

– AMR Corp., the parent company of American Airlines, fell 17 cents to 35 cents. The company filed for bankruptcy protection last month. Late Thursday the company said its stock would be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange next week.