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U.S. stocks down Monday, up for 2007

NEW YORK, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- U.S. stock indexes closed down Monday but finished the year on the positive side despite credit market woes.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 101.05 points, 0.76 percent, and closed at 13,264.82. The Nasdaq composite index finished 22.18 points lower, 0.83 percent, at 2,652.28. The Standard & Poors's 500 was down 10.13 points, 0.69 percent, at 1,468.36.

Dow industrials were up by more than 7 percent for 2007. The S&P 500 was up more than 4 percent, while the Nasdaq climbed 11 percent.

Stocks were pressured by investors hoping for a year-end bounce but taking losses for tax purposes instead, Fred Dickson, D.A. Davidson chief market analyst, told The Wall Street Journal.

"It will be very interesting to take the measure of the market's real mood Wednesday when the tax-loss selling pressure is gone," he said.

On the New York Stock Exchange, 1,414 stocks gained and 1,747 fell on a listed volume of 2.4 billion shares.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury note yielded 4.029 percent Monday.

The euro traded at $1.4590 from $1.4716 Friday. The dollar traded at 111.63 yen from 112.64 yen.

Britain's FTSE 100 Index dropped 0.3 percent to 6,456.90.

The Japanese market was closed.

Crude oil ends 2007 down

NEW YORK, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Crude oil prices finished Monday down 2 cents, closing at $95.98 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Heating oil, gasoline and natural gas finished the last trading session of the year higher.

Heating oil closed at $4.6444 per gallon, up 0.0074 cents. The per-gallon price of gasoline closed up 0.0161 cents at $2.4758. Natural gas finished the session 0.097 cents higher, at $7.483.

The average price of a gallon of unleaded gasoline was $3.046 at the gasoline pump, up from $3.039 Sunday, the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report said.

Basics may be $1,400 more in Italy in '08

ROME, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A consumer rights group said the typical Italian household may spend at least $1,400 more in 2008 to cover essentials such as food, utilities and fuel.

And unless the government steps in, the group Codacons said many families will "find themselves on the verge of bankruptcy" because of the increased spending for life's basics, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Monday.

Codacons calculated the figure by adding roughly a $585 increase for food and beverages, and $470 for vehicle and heating fuels, ANSA said.

"Given all these additional costs, it is clear that the government must intervene to help families balance their budgets," said Carlo Rienzi, Codacons chief officer. "Without adequate measures to reduce these costs as well as those for other goods and services, thousands of families risk bankruptcy in the coming year."

Subsidy helps keep small airports on radar

WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A 30-year-old U.S. government subsidy program that helps provide commercial air service to smaller communities grows despite criticism in Washington.

Critics, such as the U.S. Department of Transportation, said the subsidy -- which can underwrite up to 93 percent of a flight's cost -- is essentially luxury travel for people within driving distance of a larger airport, USA Today reported Monday. The subsidies expanded in recent years, thanks, in part, to support from the U.S. Congress, airlines and airports.

U.S. lawmakers, rejecting proposed Transportation Department cuts, allocated $110 million for the Essential Air Service program for 2008. Congress also blocked the department from requiring some communities to pick up a portion of the cost in an effort to prompt local officials to promote flights and draw more passengers.

"This is a compact of rural America with urban America," Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told USA Today. He wrote the law enacting the program in 1978 to bar airlines from fleeing small communities when airline deregulation began.

Department of Transportation administrators, saying the program is becoming harder to justify, is trying end subsidized flights to about 65 communities that are within 230 miles of larger airports.