Stocks close mixed as Europe, Greece talk bailout

Stocks were basically flat in listless trading Wednesday as the major indexes closed mixed with investors focused on a gathering of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels to discuss debt-strapped Greece.

Energy stocks were among the biggest decliners as the price of oil fell.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 6.62 points, or less than 0.1%, to 17,862.14 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index closed basically flat, slipping 0.06 point to 2068.53.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 13.54 points, or 0.3%, to 4801.18.

Benchmark U.S. crude fell $1.18 to close at $48.84 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The fate of cash-strapped Greece — which has become front-page news as its new anti-austerity government looks to get bailout concessions from its eurozone creditors — could become clearer as an emergency meeting of finance ministers was addressing Greece's appeal for more generous bailout conditions.

Markets have been held hostage recently to uncertainty tied to developments related to the high-stakes — and difficult — negotiations between Greece's new prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, and the so-called "troika," or the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission.

MARKETS:Wall Street hopes to avoid Greek tragedy

Stocks have risen on days when negotiations for a new aid package for Greece showed signs of progress; stocks have fallen on days when it looked like the two sides, which are far apart, can't get together to hatch a deal. Greece, which has received 240 billion euros in bailout money, is running out of cash.

Put simply, Greece thinks the austerity requirements tied to its bailout are too onerous, and it wants concessions from the troika. And creditors want the money they lent to Greece paid back.

At stake is Greece's future in the eurozone and a possible default. Both of those potential outcomes would roil markets and likely exacerbate the eurozone's current economic woes.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.3% to 17,652.68, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dropped 0.9% to 24,315.02.

European stocks ended lower, with the FTSE of Britain down 0.2% to 6818.17 and the CAC 40 of France down 0.4% to 4679.38. Germany's DAX was fractionally in the red.

Contributing: The Associated Press