New York ? Weighed down by terrorism, accounting scandals and fears of war, Wall Street ended its third-straight losing year Tuesday — the longest such streak since Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the White House.

2002 closed with the Dow Jones industrials down 16.8 percent for the year and 27.5 percent since Dec. 31, 1999. Analysts said a slide in the last days of December showed that investors demoralized by three years of losses simply weren’t willing to make major bets on a turnaround in the new year.

“It’s been a terrible year, particularly on top of 2000 and 2001 being down years. It’s really unprecedented territory,” said Mike Kayes, chief investment officer at Eastover Capital in Charlotte, N.C.

The Dow rose 8.78, or 0.1 percent, Tuesday to close at 8,341.63.

The broader market finished mixed. The Nasdaq composite index fell 4.03, or 0.3 percent, to 1,333.51. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 0.43, or 0.1 percent, to 879.82.

Both the Dow and S&P suffered their first three-year declines since 1939-1941. The Nasdaq posted its first three-year loss since the exchange’s inception in 1971.

A disappointing report on consumer confidence Tuesday further dampened the buying enthusiasm typically seen at year’s end.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index dropped to 80.3 percent from a revised 84.9 in November, offering a disappointing outlook for consumer spending. Analysts expected a December reading of 88.0.

Confetti flies over traders and clerks in the euro-dollar pit at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange at the close of the trading year. Despite a small gain Tuesday, markets closed to their third consecutive year of losses.

Wall Street historically has seen strong gains during the last two weeks of December on hopes of better prospects for the new year. But investors have shied away from major stock commitments on worries that rising oil prices and tensions with Iraq and North Korea will stall the economic recovery.

Indeed, the Nasdaq finished its worst December ever, with a 9.7 percent drop, while the Dow and S&P 500 had their poorest December since 1931, with declines of 6.2 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

For 2002, the Nasdaq dropped about 31.5 percent, and the S&P declined 23.4 percent.

Investors began 2002 with optimism, hoping the economy could rebuild after the 9-11 terror attacks. But then accounting scandals took center stage, at companies from Enron to WorldCom to ImClone, leaving investors distrustful.