U.S. stocks finished mixed Friday, as investors grew more concerned about Europe's current debt crisis. In world markets, European stocks ended higher, led by the FTSE 100 in Britain rising 0.9 percent. Asian markets ended mixed, as the Shanghai Composite fell 1.1 percent and the Nikkei in Japan rose 0.8 percent. In U.S. economic news, employment growth increased in November, pushing down the nation's unemployment rate to 8.6 percent, the Labor Department reported. In U.S. company news, shares of Research in Motion (RIM) slid nearly 10 percent after the company said it no longer expects to meet its full-year earnings target. The U.S. dollar rose versus the euro and versus the yen. Light sweet crude oil for January delivery rose 76 cents to $100.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures rose $11.70 to $1,747 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.61, or 0.01 percent, to 12,019.42. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 0.3, or 0.02 percent, to 1,244.28. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 0.73, or 0.03 percent, to 2,626.93.
