It came down to the wire, but in the final minute of 2011 trading, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index sank to cap the year virtually unchanged from where it closed in 2010.
The S&P 500 closed Friday down 5.42 points, or 0.43 percent, to 1,257.60. The full-year decline of 0.04 point was the smallest annual move since at least 1970, when the index finished the year down 0.07 percent.
The year treated the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average better. The Dow finished down 69.48 points, or 0.57 percent, to 12,217.56 on Friday, but closed the year up 5.53 percent.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 8.59 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,605.15, and closed the year down 1.8 percent.
The year was defined by fits and starts related to Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis and global economic growth concerns, prompting investors to flock to defensive and dividend-paying stocks.
But Friday’s moves were slim, as a dearth of news and low trading volume gave investors little incentive to take a stand ahead of the long New Year-holiday weekend.
Utilities, consumer staples and health care finished 2011 as the S&P 500’s top performing sectors, with all three gaining more than 10 percent. Financial and material stocks notched the biggest declines.
Within the Dow, McDonald’s was the top gainer in 2011, rising 31 percent for the year. Bank of America was the biggest loser, falling 58 percent in 2011.
The “Santa Claus Rally” remained intact on Friday, but just barely. The S&P 500 has gained 0.3 percent from the Dec. 22 close. The last five days and first two of the new year have been good for an average 1.5 percent gain in the S&P 500 since 1950, according to the Stock Traders’ Almanac, as investors ready their portfolios for a new year.
The major stock indexes in 2011 significantly underperformed US Treasury bonds. The biggest star was the 30-year Treasury bond, which registered a 35 percent return, while the benchmark 10-year note gained 17 percent, with the yield finishing below two percent for the first time since at least 1977.
Treasury bonds have handed investors a return of 9.66 percent through Thursday on the back of 5.87 percent gain in 2010, according to data from Barclays.