stocks ended lower tuesday capping a volatile may that saw the sp 500 flirt with a bear market but end the month virtually unchanged the dow jones industrial average djia fell around 221 points or 07 to close near 32992 while the sp 500 spx shed 26 points or 06 to finish near 4132 the nasdaq composite comp fell around 50 points or 04 to end near 12081 stocks fell sharply in may with the sp 500 on may 19 briefly trading below the 20 pullback threshold that would mark a bear market before recovering stocks then bounced sharply last week the dow eked out a 004 monthly gain while the sp 500 finished with a gain of 001 the nasdaq dropped 21 fears that rising inflation pressures would begin to undercut corporate profit margins and worries that aggressive fed tightening could spark a recession were among the factors cited for market volatility