NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Stocks ended lower Thursday, giving back the day's modest gains in the last half hour of trading, as investors eyed higher oil prices and opted to bail out at the end of a tumultuous year.

As of 6:00 p.m. ET, Nasdaq and S&P futures pointed to a flat open for stocks, when fair value is taken into account. No economic or earnings news is on tap for Friday.

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The Nasdaq composite (Charts) index lost 0.5 percent, with chip, networking and Internet shares all taking it on the chin. The S&P 500 (Charts) index lost 0.3 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average (Charts) ended barely lower.

Treasury prices limped higher, lowering the corresponding yields and the dollar was mixed versus other major currencies.

Absent a major rally Friday, the market looks set to end with lackluster returns in 2005.

Looking forward, a lot of technicians are bearish on 2006, said David Briggs, head of equity trading at Federated Investors. He said that this is due in part to a belief that the bull market is getting old at the end of its third year. Additionally, those who think the market follows the four-year cycle of the presidency point out that the second year of the four is usually the worst.

But Briggs is not convinced that a bear market is on tap. "The implication is more of the same, with 5 to 10 percent rallies, 5 to 10 percent declines," he said.

As 2006 wears on and fundamentals improve the market will probably step higher, he added. But in the shorter term, "I'm expecting some sort of first-quarter pullback. We always get one."

U.S. light crude oil for February delivery rose 50 cents to $60.32 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, rising after the release of the weekly oil inventory report.

An earlier decline in oil lent stocks some support, as did the December Chicago PMI, a reading on Midwest manufacturing.

But countering that was a steeper-than-expected slowdown in existing home sales in November and a rise in jobless claims.

As a choppy year draws to a close, the Dow is flat for 2005, the Nasdaq is up 2 percent, the S&P 500 is up 3.5 percent and the Russell 2000 is up 4.1 percent.

Market breadth was negative and volume was light. On the New York Stock Exchange, losers barely edged winners on volume of 1.03 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, decliners beat advancers eight to seven on volume of nearly 1.21 billion shares.

Intel (Research) and Advanced Micro Devices (Research) led the list of chip stocks dragging down the Philadelphia Semiconductor (Charts) index, or the SOX.

Yahoo! (Research) and eBay (Research) led the list of Internet stock decliners.

On the upside, Dow component General Motors (Research) gained two percent, bouncing after hitting a 20-year low earlier in the session.

The stock had fallen on continued brokerage speculation about the automaker's December sales decline. Additionally, a Wall Street Journal article mulled the impact of possible new accounting rules.

Fellow Dow component Merck (Research) added 1.4 percent after Morgan Stanley raised its price target on the drugmaker.

Drugmakers Alkermes (Research) and Cephalon (Research) both gained after U.S. health officials gave conditional approval for their treatment for adult alcoholism. The companies still need to meet certain Food and Drug Administration conditions before they can sell the drug.

Hilton Hotels (Research) gained on news that it will buy back the international Hilton chain for $5.7 billion.

The Dow managed modest gains Wednesday, moving back into positive territory for the year after the market took a drubbing earlier in the week. But the broader market was mixed as investors took in rising oil prices and kept an eye on the yield curve.

For the third day in a row, the 10-year note yield dipped below that of the two-year -- a so-called inversion of the yield curve that could signal an economic slowdown. (For more, click here.)

Treasury prices gained Thursday, pushing the yield on the 10-year note down to 4.36 percent from about 4.37 percent late Wednesday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

The dollar was little changed versus the euro and a bit higher against the yen.

COMEX gold for February delivery added $1.20 to settle at $517.50 an ounce.