U.S. stocks nearly unchanged

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

— U.S. stocks closed nearly unchanged Monday, after a day of uneven trading plagued by investors’ fears about the approaching “fiscal cliff.”

The Dow Jones industrial average finished down 0.31 point at 12,815.08. 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 0.18 point to 1,380.03 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 had 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. Consolidated volume on the New York Stock Exchange was 2.5 billion shares. The federal government and the U.S. bond market were closed for Veterans Day, and no economic reports were released.

The fiscal cliff refers to government spending cuts and tax increases that are scheduled to kick in at the beginning of the new year, unless Congress and the White House can work out a compromise before then.

Some traders thought the tentative trading action was nearly inevitable because there has been no positive or negative news about the economy or the possibility of a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff.

“Nothing good is going on,”said Scott Freeze, president of Street One Financial in Huntingdon Valley, Pa. “Everything forward-looking remains dreary.”

Last week, the Dow dropped 434 points in two days and had one of its worst weeks of the year.

Fiscal cliff worries were blamed Monday for keeping a lid on European markets and Asian markets, which closed mostly lower.

In Greece, lawmakers passed a new austerity budget, and the country’s international lenders drafted a report saying it had made progress in righting its finances. Greece is hoping the other euro countries will give it another $40 billion in bailout loans. The budget and the report are crucial steps toward that goal.

Still, the new bailout isn’t a sure thing: Some of the potential lenders must seek approval from their parliaments. Greece’s main stock market index closed down 3.6 percent.

Leucadia National announced it would buy the investment banking firm Jefferies Group. Jefferies’ chief will run the combined company. Leucadia, a holding company with investments in eclectic industries including beef processing and medical products, dropped 66 cents, or 3 percent, to $21.14. Jefferies soared $2, or 14 percent, to $16.27.

Sherwin-Williams, the paint company, jumped 5.8 percent after announcing it will buy Consorcio Comex, a privately held rival based in Mexico City. Its stock rose $8.22 to $149.06.

Business, Pages 22 on 11/13/2012