Stocks Head For Fourth Straight Week Of Gains As Investors Await Black Friday Cheer
Stocks closed little changed Friday in holiday-shortened trading, with volume and conviction low as investors watched the start of the seasonal shopping season for signs of consumer resilience.
All three indices posted their fourth consecutive weekly gains.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 117.12 points, or 0.3%, to 35,390.15, the Nasdaq fell 0.1% and the S&P 500 rose 0.1%.
“We had mixed macroeconomic data and the post-Thanksgiving session is only half a day long, so there aren’t as many participants,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York. “But we are seeing a market that is on the right path toward a year-end rebound.”
Retailers around the world were trying to attract millions of shoppers, with many offering deep “Black Friday” discounts the day after the Thanksgiving holiday.
“Consumers are being very frugal and, although they can spend, they are looking for bargains,” Cardillo added. “The higher cost of money is affecting consumers’ pockets.”
A survey by NRF, a retail trade group, showed that American shoppers plan to spend an average of $875 on holiday shopping this year, an annual increase of about 5%.
S&P Global’s advanced Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) showed stable business activity in the United States in November, but private sector employment declined for the first time in nearly three and a half years, possibly due to tight monetary policy in the Federal Reserve.
Next week’s most anticipated data includes the Commerce Department’s second estimate of third-quarter gross domestic product on Thursday, followed on Friday by its broad Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) report, which will provide more clues about the scope of the Federal Reserve interest rate. impact of the walk.
Attention has increasingly shifted to the likely timing of the central bank’s first rate cut, which will be largely determined by the pace at which inflation cools toward the Fed’s average 2% target.
New and pending home sales, home prices, consumer prices and ISM PMI are also expected next week.
Nvidia fell 1.9% after Reuters reported a delay in the launch of the company’s new China-focused AI chip designed to meet US export regulations until the first quarter of 2024.
IRobot surged 39% on a report that Amazon is close to gaining unconditional EU antitrust approval for its $1.4 billion acquisition of the robot vacuum cleaner.
Vista Outdoor advanced 3.9% after Czech arms maker Colt CZ Group’s cash-and-stock merger offer worth nearly $1.7 billion.
U.S.-listed shares of Chinese electric vehicle maker Xpeng rose 6.1% after Volkswagen said it will develop a new platform for entry-level electric vehicles in China.
