* Investors capped a year of solid gains on Wall Street in a selling mood Friday, sending the major U.S. stock indexes modestly lower on the final trading day of 2016.
The Dow Jones industrial average slid 57.18 points, or 0.3 percent, to end the year at 19,762.60. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 10.43 points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,238.83. The Nasdaq composite gave up 48.97 points, or 0.9 percent, to 5,383.12.
All told, the Dow ended the year with a 13.4 percent gain, while the Nasdaq composite gained 7.5 percent.
The S&P's 500 index, the broadest measure of the stock market, gained 9.5 percent after an essentially flat finish in 2015. Including dividends, the total return was 12.5 percent as of Thursday's close.
* Wall Street rose sharply on Tuesday as a post-election rally extended into the new year, helped by gains in Verizon Communications and technology companies Alphabet and Facebook.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI climbed 119.16 points, or 0.6 percent, to end at 19,881.76 points and the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.85 percent to 2,257.83.
The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 0.85 percent to 5,429.08.
* Japanese shares up more than 1 percent on Wednesday morning as the yen weakened against a stronger dollar, and after a private survey suggested the manufacturing sector might be recovering.
The Nikkei 225 leaped up 1.73 percent while the Topix bounced up 1.83 percent, likely due to expectations of a weaker yen after the greenback hit a 14-year high overnight against a basket of currencies.
Reference: Nwaonline, Reuters, CNBC
Thai
Eng