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The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 103.81 points to 25,850.63 as Walgreens Boots Alliance lagged. The S&P 500 dipped 0.35 percent to 2,774.88, led lower by the energy and health care sectors. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.4 percent to 7,459.71.

Durable goods orders for December rose 1.2 percent, the Commerce Department said. The department also said core capital goods orders fell 0.7 percent while economists polled by Reuters expected a gain of 0.2percent.

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve business index fell to negative 4.1 in February — its lowest level since May 2016 — from 17 in January. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a print of 14.

"The fundamental data, as it gets worse, will start having a negative effect on asset prices again over the next couple of quarters," said Hugo Rogers, chief investment strategist at Deltec International Group. "At that point, the Fed might have to do something more dramatic than waiting and seeing."

·       Shares in Asia were flat in early trade on Friday following a fall on Wall Street, with a deteriorating global economic outlook outweighing more signs of progress in trade talks between China and the United States.

Early in the Asian trading day, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up less than 0.1 percent.

Australian shares gained 0.5 percent and Japan’s Nikkei stock index was 0.3 percent lower.

Investors continue to closely watch high-level talks between U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators in Washington, with little more than a week left before a U.S.-imposed deadline for an agreement expires, triggering higher tariffs.

Reuters reported exclusively on Wednesday that the two sides were drafting language for six memorandums of understanding on proposed Chinese reforms, progress that had helped to lift investor sentiment.