At 9:36 a.m. ET (1336 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 33.45 points, or 0.18 per cent, at 18,580.07.
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All three major indexes ended at record highs on Thursday for the first time since 1999, with the recent rally causing many investors to worry about pricey valuations.
The S&P 500 was down 3.06 points, or 0.14 per cent, at 2,182.73.
All three were record finishes – the first time that’s happened since December 31, 1999, the last day of the 20th century.
So far for 2016, the Dow and S&P 500 are each up almost 7 percent, and the tech-weighted Nasdaq almost 4.5 percent.
The Commerce Department said retail sales were virtually unchanged in July after climbing by an upwardly revised 0.8 percent in June.
The S&P/TSX composite index is down 14.84 points at 14,781.22, still near its highest level this year.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.06-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.07-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The preliminary Michigan Consumer Sentiment reading was 90.4 for August compared to a prior reading of 90.0 and consensus estimates of 90.2. Ex-auto sales had been expected to rise by 0.2 percent.
The Producer Price Index for July fell 0.4 percent compared to consensus estimates for a flat reading.
Stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Thursday, more than offsetting the modest losses posted in the previous session.
In commodities trading, crude oil futures are rising $0.20 to $43.69 a barrel after jumping $1.78 to $43.49 a barrel on Thursday. On Thursday, gold fell $1.90.
Exxon Mobil XOM.N rose 1.3 percent to $87.85 and gave the biggest boost to the Dow and S&P 500, while Chevron CVX.N added 0.75 percent to $102.16.
Oil service and railroad stocks also moved to the downside on the day, while some strength was visible among natural gas and computer hardware stocks. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell by 5.8 basis points to 1.515 percent.
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The U.S. Dollar was slightly lower on Friday. The main indexes were on track to finish the week roughly where they started.
