Stocks ended lower as politicians again pushed their plans on how to avoid the “fiscal cliff”. The ISM manufacturing activity index fell to 49.5% in November, while economists had expected a reading of 51.7%, or a slight rise in activity. Also, Markit’s U.S. PMI hit a six-month high of 52.8% in November. Construction spending rose 1.4% in October, above expectations of a 0.5% gain, car sales rebounded even more than expected in November after being hurt in October by the storm. Tech stocks ended mixed after Dell gained 4.4% as Goldman Sachs raised its rating to buy from sell. Apple added 0.16% after the co. said the iPhone 5 would be available in South Korea on Friday, in China next week and in more than 50 other countries before Christmas. Zynga tumbled 9.3% as the firm announced a series of changes in its partnership with Facebook and there were also reports of more executives leaving the company. Facebook fell 3.4% on reports that the co. was in talks to acquire WhatsApp. After the closing bell Oracle lost 0.71% after the software giant siad its board has approved the payment of three upcoming quarterly dividends on Dec. 21, with the “accelerated” dividend totaling $0.18 a share for its fiscal 2013 second, third and fourth quarters.
