U.S. stocks were slightly lower on Friday, paring losses earlier in the trading session as technology sector stocks led the market.

Shares declined in morning trading on news of additional monetary policy tightening by the Chinese government.

The S&P 500 Index is down 5.98 points, or 0.55 percent, to trade at 1,072.49 at 3:18 p.m. EST. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 79.66 points, or 0.79 percent, to trade at 10,064.53. The tech heavy Nasdaq Composite was down 0.04 percent.

Chip makers are the best performing tech stocks; NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) is up 1.34 percent, AMD (NYSE:AMD) is up 0.51 percent, and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) leads Dow with a gain of 1.89 percent.

Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) is up 3.11 percent and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is up 0.94 percent. Both received favorable treatment from analysts today; Research In Motion was upgraded and Apple's price target was raised.

A few steel firms also rallied; U.S. Steel (NYSE:X) is up 1.57 percent and Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) is up 0.70 percent.

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