U.S. stocks ended little changed on Friday, as lower crude oil prices and an encouraging update from Intel helped offset a disappointing employment report for November.

U.S. payrolls added 112,000 jobs last month, below forecasts for a gain of 200,000, and down from 303,000 in October. But the jobless rate still slipped to 5.4 percent from 5.5 percent.

As it does almost every day, the U.S. dollar fell to a new all-time low against the euro, trading at $1.3460 against the European currency, a worst level than the prior low of $1.3382 set on Dec. 2.

On the positive side, the ISM index for the services sector came in above forecasts at 59.8 in November, almost matching the robust reading of 60 the prior month.

OUTLOOK

Given the good gains scored in recent weeks, market participants will see whether equities can stage an unusually strong year-end rally.

THE NUMBERS

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 7 points to 10,592. The Nasdaq composite index added 4 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,147 while the Nasdaq-100 index of large capitalization tech and biotech stocks ended flat at 1,614.