U.S. stocks closed lower Tuesday, as investors became increasingly concerned about whether Congress can adequately and quickly deal with the fiscal cliff. The dollar gained against the euro and the yen, but was flat against the pound. Light sweet crude oil for January delivery fell 56 cents to $87.18 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures dropped $7.30 to $1,742.30 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 89.24, or 0.69 percent, to 12,878.13. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 7.35, or 0.52 percent, to 1,398.94. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index dropped 8.99, or 0.30 percent, to 2,967.79.
