DOW JONES-NEW YORK, Dec 30 (Reuters) - For the U.S. stock market, 2011 was a long wild ride to nowhere.
The broad S&P 500 endured huge daily swings but a year of drama left the index almost where it started. It lost a mere 0.003 percent, closest to unchanged since 1947, according to Standard & Poor's.
Global markets have been battered this year by the euro-zone debt crisis, upheaval in the Middle East, and U.S. political gridlock. Similar events probably await investors in 2012.
The Dow industrials gained 5.5 percent for the year as investors sought safety in large-cap, dividend-paying stocks. The Nasdaq lost 1.8 percent.
NYMEX-NEW YORK, Dec 30 (Reuters) - U.S. crude futures ended lower on Friday, but rose $7.45, or 8.2 percent for the year, a third straight annual gain, as export-disrupting civil war in Libya countered the effect of slowing economies and Europe's debt problems.
On Friday, crude seesawed in light, year-end trading volume, with weak factory data from China and continued worries about Europe's economy and debt problems pressuring oil even as Iran's threat of shutting the Strait of Hormuz and internal tensions in Iraq and Nigeria helped limit oil's losses.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, February crude
CBOT-SOYBEANS, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Soybean futures at the Chicago Board of Trade in 2011 posted their first annual decline in three years, falling 13.7 percent on a slowing of U.S. soy exports and a softening world economy, traders said.
Concerns about tightening U.S. soy stocks lifted the market to a near three-year high of $14.56 per bushel in August, as reduced plantings and hot summer weather had analysts predicting U.S. soy production would fall to a three-year low.
But CBOT soybean prices faltered in recent months, pressured by export competition from Brazil, which is projected to surpass the United States as the world's top soy exporter for the 2011/12 marketing year.
Near-term soy market prospects for 2012 will hinge on South American crop weather. Worries about dry conditions in southern Brazil and Argentina, the world's No. 3 soy exporter, helped lift CBOT soybean futures by 6.3 percent in December, paring yearly losses.
FCPO-SINGAPORE, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Malaysian crude palm oil futures inched up on Friday in thinly traded markets, lifted by positive U.S. economic data and concerns that heavy rain fall in second-largest producer Malaysia may cause supply disruption.
U.S. data on Thursday pointed to positive trends for the world's biggest economy and helped allay concerns on slowing economic growth, giving global markets a much needed boost.
Despite the rise, palm oil posted its first annual decline since 2008. It lost more than 16 percent this year, a performance that pales in comparison to the 42 percent gain in 2010.
Benchmark March palm oil futures
REGIONAL EQUITIES-BANGKOK, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Most Southeast Asian stock markets pushed higher on Friday and some even managed small gains on the year, in contrast to the rest of Asia, depressed by Europe's unresolved debt crisis and worries about global demand.
Even though Southeast Asian markets had their worst year since 2008, when the global financial crisis hit share values, the Philippines, which was closed on Friday, was Asia's best-performing market this year with a 4.1 percent gain.
For Malaysia, besides having to contend with a slowing economy, investors will very likely have to brace for the impact of general elections, amid a multitude of risks, it said.
Market turnover was generally subdued ahead of the New Year celebrations. The Philippines and Indonesia reopen on Monday, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam on Tuesday and Thailand on Wednesday.
