By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks began the final trading day of the year mildly lower with Europe’s troubles in view.
Ahead of Friday’s opening bell, Spain’s new government unveiled austerity measures and said it expects a 2011 budget gap of nearly 8%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -0.12% fell 18.17 points to 12,268.87, with 21 of its 30 components retreating. The blue-chip index currently is up 6% for 2011.
Retaining a 0.3% edge for 2011, the S&P 500 SPX -0.05% fell more than a point to 1,261.70, with financial companies the heaviest drag among its 10 industry groups.
The Nasdaq Composite COMP -0.03% fell almost 2 points to 2,612.28.
Investors had drawn some cheer from reassurances offered by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who ruled out a breakup of the euro region in an interview published Friday.
“I think that in the next 12 months we will have avoided the danger of contagion and will have stabilized the euro zone,” Schaeuble told Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper.
Kate Gibson is a reporter for MarketWatch, based in New York.
