US stocks closed mixed on Friday amid a low-volume day of trading following the Thanksgiving holiday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) closed up about 0.3%, or more than 100 points higher, while the benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) hugged the flatline. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite (^IXIC) lagged, falling roughly 0.1%.
All three major indices closed with gains for the fourth straight trading week, setting up November as the best month for the Dow since October 2022. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 are on track for their best month since July 2022.
Bond yields rose with the 10-year Treasury note (^TNX) ticking up about 6 basis points to trade near 4.48%.
Retailers outperformed the broader market as Black Friday kicks off the holiday shopping season. The S&P retail sector (XRT) closed up about 0.6% as companies like Home Depot (HD) and Best Buy (BBY) gained to end the week.
Big box chains such as Target (TGT) and Walmart (WMT) also closed higher, despite warning that penny-pinching consumers are spending cautiously. Retailers are going earlier and longer on holiday promotions as shoppers turn picky.
Amazon (AMZN), meanwhile, ended the shortened holiday trading session flat as the company prepares to debut the first-ever NFL Black Friday game in a bid to capture more viewers, lure in holiday shoppers, and attract higher-paying advertisers.
Discord at OPEC+ kept a lid on crude prices after the group of oil-producing countries said it will hold its next meeting online. The meeting to discuss output was delayed due to a dispute between Saudi Arabia and African members over quotas, Bloomberg reported.
Brent crude futures (BZ=F) ticked lower to trade just above $81 per barrel, after falling 1.3% in the last two sessions. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures dipped about 1% to trade at about $76 a barrel after the Thanksgiving break in trading.
Nvidia’s (NVDA) stock closed down nearly 2% after Reuters reported the company has pushed back the launch in China of an AI chip designed to comply with US export curbs. In its earnings this week, Nvidia noted the new US restrictions would drag on its results.
Cryptocurrencies saw a big boost with bitcoin (BTC-USD) rallying to trade above $38,000 at one point in the session — its highest level since May 2022. Shares in crypto broker Coinbase (COIN) also moved higher on the news, closing up about 6%.
Tesla (TSLA), another leading ticker on the Yahoo Finance homepage, climbed roughly 0.5% higher after CEO Elon Musk said it is “insane” how a strike that started with seven repair shops has started to spread in the country of Sweden, with postal workers now refusing to deliver to Tesla offices.
The strike comes after Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers union, aims to target Tesla next.
