Stocks Off to Losing Start

As for economic data, November employment figures from Automatic Data Processing showed that 250,000 jobs had been lost that month, more than the 205,000 anticipated by economists. The October unemployment figure was revised to 179,000 from 157,000.

Revised third-quarter productivity numbers from the Department of Labor showed a 1.3% reading, above consensus estimates of 0.9% and up from 1.1% in the second quarter.

Also on the docket is a November non-manufacturing report from the Institute for Supply Management and the Fed's so-called beige book of anecdotal economic reports.

Shifting to commodities, crude oil was falling 2 cents to $46.94 a barrel. Gold was losing $14.10 to $769.20 an ounce.

Longer-dated U.S. Treasury securities were falling in price. The 10-year note was down 10/32 to yield 2.71%, and the 30-year was losing 4/32 to yield 3.18%. The dollar was rising vs. the euro and pound but falling against the yen.

European exchanges, including the FTSE in London and the DAX in Frankfurt, were trading lower. Asian markets, such as Japan's Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng, finished on the upside.