Dollar Decline Weighs on Stocks

Among companies, retailers are in focus as shoppers rush to the stores for "Black Friday." Big chains such as Wal-Mart (WMT Quote), Best Buy (BBY Quote) and Federated Department Stores (FD Quote) all opened their stores early and offered big promotions to lure in shoppers.

Retail shares were sluggish despite news that shoppers were out in droves. Target (TGT Quote) was off 1.2%, Kohl's (KSS Quote) lost 0.8%, and Wal-Mart ended down 0.3%.

Without any releases on the economic docket, the 10-year note was up 3/32 in price and yielding 4.55%. Crude prices retraced some of Wednesday's decline, as oil was recently up 52 cents to $59.76 a barrel in electronic Nymex trading.

On Wednesday, stocks finished modestly higher, as tech stocks got a lift from Dell's (DELL Quote) stronger-than-expected third-quarter earnings report. The S&P 500 tacked on 3.28 points, or 0.23%, to 1406.09, and the Nasdaq was up 11.14 points, or 0.45%, to 2465.98.

The Dow added 5.36 points, or 0.04%, to 12,326.95, despite weakness in component General Motors(GM Quote). The world's biggest automaker fell nearly 5% on news that its largest individual shareholder, Kirk Kerkorian, sold some of his stake in the company. GM shares were among the few Dow gainers Friday, rising 14 cents, or 0.5%, to close at $31.23.

Overseas, European markets closed lower. London's FTSE 100 was down 0.3% at 6122, and Frankfurt's Xetra DAX lost 1% to 6412. Asia's markets also lost ground overnight. The Nikkei eased 1.1% at 15,734, and the Hang Seng dipped 0.03% to 19,260.