Stocks in the United States declined while the housing market showed signs of life, continuing the country's trend of economic uncertainty. Students who are pursuing an online degree in finance or are enrolled in an online accounting degree program are learning the industry at a unique time in the country's history.

The stock decline is attributed to Spain's budget deficit. The uncertainty was most evident in the financial industry, with Bank of America Corp. seeing a slump of 0.4 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 0.1 percent as of 10:32 a.m. EST on December 30, according to Bloomberg.

“The U.S. economic data has been experiencing some bounce in the last quarter,” Kevin Shacknofsky, who helps manage about $5 billion for Alpine Mutual Funds in New York, said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg. “The negative is still Europe. Spain numbers show that it's very difficult to have strong economic performance while you're trying to deleverage.”

Despite the European uncertainty, many have optimism for the U.S. economy in 2012, helped by an improved labor market and a housing market that showed sales of previously owned homes at a high not experienced for more than a year.