Europe lower, Asian markets mixed

(CNN) -- London was down a percent, while Paris was off about half a percent. The Frankfurt index was closed.

Asia and Pacific markets were mixed, with no clear direction in the trading.

The Nikkei index in Tokyo finished the day down 2.3%. In Seoul, the KOSPI closed 1.4% lower and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost about a quarter percent.

On Wall Street, stocks fell Tuesday in a sparsely traded session as the markets limped toward the end of a brutal year.

The indices drifted lower for most of the day, but losses accelerated in late afternoon trade.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at 8,419, down 100 points, or 1.2%, for the day. The Standard & Poor's 500 index slid nearly 1% and the Nasdaq composite ended 0.7% lower.

"Investors are looking to protect their positions into the end of the year," said Ryan Larson, senior equity trader at Voyageur Asset Management in Chicago. "Nobody's willing to take new positions."

Trading is expected to be volatile for the remainder of the week, with many market participants out for the holiday. Markets will close early on Wednesday and will remain shuttered on Thursday for the Christmas holiday.

"On light volume days you just want to see the market trade flat," Larson said. "Down a quarter percent is considered a win."

The glum tone of Tuesday's session was set early by a raft of economic reports on housing, consumer sentiment and gross domestic product.

"We've compacted a lot of economic data into one day," said Art Hogan, chief market analyst with Jefferies & Co. in New York. But the market has already "priced in" much of the bad news, he added.

The National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes fell 8.6% in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of to 4.49 million units from a downwardly revised 4.91 million units in October. November sales are down more than 10% versus last year and were weaker than the 4.93 million units economists forecasted.

The Realtors also said that the median existing home sold for $181,300 in November, down 13.2% from a year ago when the median was $208,800.

Separately, the Census Bureau said sales of new homes fell 2.9% in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 407,000 from a downwardly revised total of 419,000 in October. That tally was worse than the seasonally adjusted 420,000 that economists forecasted.

While the data "surprised us on the down side," the ailing housing market "is certainly something where we've factored in a lot of bad news already," Hogan said.

Many economists say a recovery in the housing market is a crucial step toward restoring the economy's health and limiting the current recession.

The University of Michigan unexpectedly revised its consumer sentiment index higher to a reading of 60.1 from the 59.1 it announced on December 12. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a downward revision to 58.6.

"The most significant change recorded in the December survey was the record plunge in inflation expectations," said Richard Curtin, the director of the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers in a statement.

Still, Curtin warned that rising unemployment and the weak economy remain major concerns for consumers.

Investors are concerned about the outlook for consumer spending, which makes up the bulk of the nation's overall economic activity, as American households continue to curtail spending.

The Commerce Department said before the market opened that gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's economy, shrank at a 0.5% annual rate in the third quarter. It was the third and final revision for third-quarter GDP, and the decline was in line with economists' expectations.

Major indexes in Europe were mixed on Tuesday.