London - AFP
Wall Street stock markets flatlined Friday as traders digested mixed jobs market data and worried about Europe\'s ability to respond to a growing eurozone debt crisis.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.97 points (0.02 percent) to 12,018.06 in closing trade.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite edged up 0.73 point (0.03 percent) to 2,626.93, while the S&P 500, a broader measure of the markets, slipped 0.34 point (0.03 percent) to 1,244.24.
Stocks pared modest opening gains \"as traders grapple with a mixed US Labor report and continued uncertainty regarding the eurozone?s ability to successfully combat the festering debt crisis,\" Charles Schwab analysts said in a client note.
The analysts said that traders may be treading with some caution ahead of the weekend and a key European Union summit on the eurozone crisis Thursday and Friday.
In its highly anticipated monthly jobs market report, the Labor Department said the unemployment rate dropped to a 32-month low of 8.6 percent in November.
It was the sharpest decline since December, and surprised most analysts who forecast the jobless rate would hold steady at 9.0 percent for a second straight month.