Stocks kicked off December with losses after an early rally fizzled Monday. The NYSE composite and the S&P 500 fell 0.4% and 0.5%, respectively. Both were up as much as 0.5% intraday. The Nasdaq finished with a 0.3% loss after squandering a 0.7% gain. All three indexes closed near their lows for the session, snapping a trend of strong closes. As mentioned in Monday's column, the major indexes faced a technical test and so far they are not passing.