Wall Street Searches for Post-Holiday Direction

Elsewhere among pharma firms, AstraZeneca (AZN Quote) faces delays for its infant lung drug Motavizumab thanks to inquiries by the Food and Drug Administration.

Eli Lilly (LLY Quote), meanwhile, said it has withdrawn a new-drug application with the FDA for its pain medication Cymbalta.

Although the day was light on domestic economic data, there were additional signs of trouble abroad Friday. The European Union's statistics office said that inflation in the Eurozone for November came in at 2.1%, down from 3.2% in October. The EU also said that unemployment in the region had reached 7. 7% in October, a 0.1% increase from September.

As for analyst actions, online auctioneer eBay (EBAY Quote) caught an Argus downgrade to hold from buy.

Looking at commodities, crude oil was shedding $1.35 to $53.09 a barrel. Gold was gaining $2.10 to $813.40 an ounce.

Longer-dated U.S. Treasury securities were mixed. The 10-year note was flat in price to yield 2.98%, and the 30-year was down 2/32, yielding 3.52%. The dollar was gaining on the euro, yen and pound.

Overseas, European exchanges such as the FTSE in London and the DAX in Frankfurt were trading lower. In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng finished with gains.