Wall Street opened lower on Thursday despite a rise in U.S. retail sales in November, after a report showed jobless claims rose 68,000 to 368,000 last week. Investors now wait for the budget deal to pass a vote in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

In corporate news, Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) will replace Teradyne, Inc. (NYSE: TER) on the S&P 500 after the close of trading on Dec. 20. Teradyne will replace Scholastic Corp. (NASDAQ: SCHL) in the S&P MidCap 400.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 81.20 points, or 0.51 percent, to 15,762.33. The S&P 500 was down 4.06 points, or 0.23 percent, to 1,778.16. The Nasdaq Composite rose 4.33 points, or 0.11 percent, to 4,008.42.