Wall St closes flat with payrolls on deck

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Major U.S. stock indexes were little changed on Thursday even as declining names outnumbered advancers, ahead of job market data seen as key to determine whether the Federal Reserve will raise rates before the end of the year.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 11.36 points, or 0.06 percent, to 18,269.67, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 1.1 points, or 0.05 percent, to 2,160.83 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 9.17 points, or 0.17 percent, to 5,306.85.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Nick Zieminski)