Stocks opened higher as Thursday's surprise rally extended into Friday's open. However, the market was unable to hold its opening gains and fell into negative territory. Before the losses became too great, the market reversed itself and moved higher with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the way. The market drifted throughout the afternoon, with the Dow Jones and the S&P falling back into negative territory. With only one trading day to to, the market is on pace for its worst December since the bull market began ten years ago.

ECONOMIC EVENTS: The Chicago PMI fell 1.0 point in December to 65.4, better than forecast, after November's 8 point bounce to 66.4. The U.S. pending home sales index declined 0.7% to 101.4 in November, weaker than expected, and extending the 2.6% drop to 102.1 in October.

COMPANY NEWS: Wells Fargo (WFC) reached an agreement with all 50 state Attorneys General and the District of Columbia regarding previously disclosed retail sales practices, auto collateral protection insurance and Guaranteed Asset/Auto Protection, and mortgage interest rate lock matters. Under the terms of the agreement, Wells Fargo will pay a total of $575M to resolve civil claims that the state Attorneys General otherwise might bring arising out of or related to the covered conduct prior to the effective date of the agreement... Tesla (TSLA) announced that Oracle (ORCL) founder Larry Ellison and Walgreens' Kathleen Wilson-Thompson have joined its board of directors. Each joined the board as an independent director, effective December 27, the company said in a statement. Tesla shares closed higher on the day by 5.6% to $333.87.

MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Casella Waste (CWST), which was higher by over 6.7% after being upgraded to Buy from Hold at Stifel, and Wingstop (WING), which was higher by almost 6.7% after being upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Wedbush.

Among the notable losers was Inter Parfums (IPAR), which was down by 1.5% after being downgraded to Hold from Buy at BWS Financial.

INDEXES: The Dow fell 76.42, or 0.33%, to 23,062.40, the Nasdaq gained 5.03, or 0.08%, to 6,584.52, and the S&P 500 declined 3.09, or 0.12%, to 2,485.73.