Markets end February with a down day

February proved to be a strong month for U.S. stocks, though it ended in downbeat fashion.

Major indexes closed lower Friday, capping a week of subdued trading that still delivered a couple of new highs for the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index.

The week also brought the Nasdaq composite within striking distance of its March 2000 high.

The Nasdaq notched the biggest monthly gain, at 7.1 percent. But the S&P 500's 5.5 percent performance marked its best monthly increase since October 2011, and a turnaround from its 3.1 percent slide in January. The Dow rose 5.6 percent for the month.

Trading was listless for much of Friday as investors balanced encouraging reports on housing and consumer confidence against data showing that the U.S. economy grew at a slower annual rate in the final months of 2014 than previously estimated.

Oil rose, recouping some of its losses from a day earlier.

Technology stocks were among the biggest decliners.

"Many people are trying to figure out what to do, taking some profits when they can. We saw that over the past couple of days with tech stocks," said JJ Kinahan, TD Ameritrade's chief strategist. "It's a wait-and-see attitude."

The Dow ended down 81.72 points, or 0.45 percent, to 18,132.70. That's down 0.5 percent from its most recent high of 18,224.57 on Wednesday.

The S&P 500 slid 6.24 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,104.50. The index is down 0.5 percent from a high of 2,115.48 on Tuesday.

The Nasdaq fell 24.36 points, or 0.49 percent, to 4,963.53. The index has been inching closer to crossing the 5,000-point mark, something it has not done since March 2000 at the height of the dot-com era. It's now within 86 points of that peak.

The three main U.S. indexes are all up for the year.

The bull market, now in its sixth year, has been powered by strong corporate earnings growth and low interest rates. Strong job growth and improving consumer confidence also have encouraged traders, despite signs of sluggishness in Europe and elsewhere.

"The market does not have a clear catalyst to either cause it to sell off or to surge forward," said David Heidel, regional investment director at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.