Major Averages Close Near the Unchanged Mark

A day after a two percent rally, stocks closed near unchanged on Tuesday. Volume was light heading into the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday. An accounting scandal involving Hewlett-Packard's

$11 billion acquisition of enterprise software-maker Autonomy was among the leading market stories on an otherwise slow day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell a little more than seven points to close just above 12,788. The widely watched blue-chip index traded in a range between 12,701 and 12,808. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF

added 0.04 percent to $139.19, a gain of a mere 6 cents. Volume was light with around 112.3 million SPY shares trading hands compared to a 3-month daily average of roughly 130 million. The PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF

, which tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100, rose 0.03 percent to $63.80. The QQQ has now added a little better than 14 percent in 2012. Crude oil fell on the session and NYMEX crude futures, the U.S. benchmark, were last trading down 2.42 percent to $87.12. Brent crude contracts had lost 1.41 percent in electronic trading to $110.13. The United States Oil Fund ETF

fell 2.20 percent to $31.95 on Tuesday. Precious metals were very slightly lower on the day. At last check, COMEX gold futures had shed 0.37 percent to $1,727.90 and silver futures were down 0.07 percent to $33.17. The heavily traded SPDR Gold Trust ETF

fell 0.30 percent to close at $167.39. Treasuries fell throughout the trading session despite lukewarm risk sentiment. The iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF

lost 0.99 percent to close at $124.41. The yield on the 10-Year Note rose five basis points to 1.66 percent. The U.S. dollar was also slightly lower on the session. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF

, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, fell 0.05 percent to $22.13. The closely watched EUR/USD pair was last trading at $1.2806, a gain of 0.29 percent on the day.