New York ? Wall Street ended a painful year with another steep loss Monday as investors glumly anticipated that 2008 would see a continuation of the uncertainty and turbulence of 2007.

The Dow Jones industrials fell 101 points, the latest in a string of triple-digit moves that became commonplace in the just-ended year amid a continuum of bad news about housing, faltering mortgages and shrinking credit.

Thanks to a big first-half advance, they still managed to finish 2007 with a respectable increase of 6.43 percent – not as large as the 16.29 percent increase in 2006, but a better performance than the modest loss in 2005.

The Dow’s annual gain came even after it posted its worst fourth-quarter drop in 20 years, amid billion-dollar losses at the world’s biggest financial firms and falling spending by consumers whose budgets have been crimped by record-high oil prices and declining home prices.

“Considering all that’s going on, the market really acted pretty well,” said Todd Leone, managing director of equity trading at Cowen & Co. It’s tough to say what the primary market driver of 2008 will be, but he said the fourth-quarter earnings season in January should shed some light on how U.S. companies are surviving the recent slowdown and credit crunch.

There was more downbeat news on housing Monday. The National Association of Realtors said November existing home sales rose 0.4 percent to an annual rate of 5 million – the first rise in nine months. However, sales are still 20 percent below where they were a year ago, and the median existing home price has dropped 3.3 percent over the past 12 months.

Falling home prices have made it hard for struggling homeowners to refinance their mortgages, and the slump in construction activity has hurt homebuilders and other housing-related industries.

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow on Monday fell 101.05, or 0.76 percent, to 13,264.82. The blue-chip index remains below its Oct. 9 record high of 14,164.53, at which point it was up more than 13 percent year-to-date.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index and the technology-dominated Nasdaq composite index also declined Monday, but both posted annual gains for the fifth straight year.

The S&P 500 index fell 10.13, or 0.69 percent, to 1,468.36, to end 2007 with a gain of 3.53 percent. It had reached a record close of 1,565.15 on Oct. 9.

The Nasdaq fell 22.18, or 0.83 percent, to 2,652.28, to finish the year with 9.81 percent gain. Despite the market’s volatility, this was the best performance for the Nasdaq, still well below its tech boom highs, since 2003.