Wall Street starts holiday-shortened day in red

• Falling crude oil prices drag energy shares lower.
• Defensive sectors post small daily gains on Friday.

Wall Street's main indexes started the day in the negative territory on Friday as investors returned from the Thanksgiving Day holiday break. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.3% on the day while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were both erasing 0.25%.

Stocks markets in the US will close early today and investors could look to book their profits on the last trading day of November following this week's rally that lifted them to fresh all-time highs.

Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, the Energy Index is losing 0.7% pressured by a 2.8% drop in crude oil prices. On the other hand, the defensive sectors, Utilities, Real Estate and Consumer Staples, are posting small daily gains to reflect a sour market mood.