Stocks couldn’t hold on to a brief afternoon gain and wound up ending mostly lower Thursday.

       The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each fell. The tech-heavy Nasdaq managed to eke out a small gain. More stocks fell than rose in the S&P 500, and most of the index’s sectors took slight losses. Industrial and health care companies did the worst, while some retailers rose after the government reported a surprise gain in retail sales last month.

       On Thursday:

       The S&P 500 fell 6.95 points, or 0.2%, to 4,473.75.

       The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 63.07 points, or 0.2%, to 34,751.32.

       The Nasdaq rose 20.39 points, or 0.1%, to 15,181.92.

       The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 1.54 points, or 0.1%, to 2,232.91.

       For the week:

       The S&P 500 is up 15.17 points, or 0.3%.

       The Dow is up 143.60 points, or 0.4%.

       The Nasdaq is up 66.43 points, or 0.4%.

       The Russell 2000 is up 5.37 points, or 0.2%.

       For the year:

       The S&P 500 is up 717.68 points, or 19.1%.

       The Dow is up 4,144.84 points, or 13.5%.

       The Nasdaq is up 2,293.64 points, or 17.8%.

       The Russell 2000 is up 258.06 points, or 13.1%.