U.S. stocks ended lower on Friday as investors avoided taking risky moves before the long weekend amid European uncertainties.

When the market closed, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 74.92 points, or 0.60 percent, at 12,454.83. The Standard & Poor's 500 lost 2.86 points, or 0.22 percent, to 1,317.82. The Nasdaq Composite Index edged down 1.85 points, or 0.07 percent, to 2,837. 53.

Concerns over a possible Greece exit from the euro zone have been weighed down the market recently. Any news concerning the country's outlook can move the market.

On Tuesday, Wall Street suffered a last-minute sell-off after Lucas Papademos, former Greek prime minister, said in an interview that preparations for Greece's exit from the euro zone are being considered and warned that dropping the single currency would have "catastrophic" economic consequences for the debt-ridden nation and the rest of the euro zone.

While on the next day, Wall Street was saved from a sharp decline as news from Europe showed European leaders were probably close to a deal to keep Greece in the currency union.

With all these uncertainties and no resolutions from the region, investors chose to be cautious and averted risky assets.

Meanwhile, fears about Spain intensified after the president of Catalonia, Spain's wealthiest autonomous region, said it is running out of options for refinancing more than 13 billion euros in debt that comes due this year.

Spain's troubled bank, Bankia, asked the Spanish government for 19 billion euros in financial support, marking another rise in the cost of rescuing the country's fourth-biggest bank.

Domestically, the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan final index of consumer sentiment climbed to 79.3 from 76.4 the prior month, stronger than analysts had expected.

However, survey director Richard Curtin said in the statement that "consumer confidence is still extremely vulnerable to a reversal, as occurred in the past two years."

"From a technical perspective, the U.S. stock market is trying to find support and stage a rally," said Kenneth Polcari, managing director at ICAP Equities, "this though proving more difficult given deteriorating market breadth."

For the week, the blue-chip Dow added 0.69 percent. The broader S&P 500 gained 1.74 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 2.11 percent.

In other markets, the U.S. dollar rose against most major currencies in late New York trading on Friday and crude prices edged up due to lack of progress in Iran nuclear talks.

Light, sweet crude for July delivery rose 20 cents, or 0.22 percent to settle at 90.86 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. For this week, oil prices dropped 62 cents, or 0.68 percent.

The U.S. financial market will be closed on Monday due to Memorial Day holiday and resume trading on Tuesday.