Stocks Struggle for Direction on Jobs, Retail Data

Looking at commodities, crude oil was down 27 cents to $46.52 a barrel. Gold was gaining $2.50 to $773 an ounce.

Longer-dated U.S. Treasury securities were rising in price. The 10-year note was up 11/32, yielding 2.62%, and the 30-year was adding 26/32 to yield 3.13%. The dollar was climbing vs. the pound but softening against the yen and euro.

Abroad, European exchanges, including the FTSE in London and the DAX in Frankfurt, were trading lower. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng finished on the downside.