NEW YORK: The S&P 500 index hit a record high as Wall Street’s main indexes rose in a shortened Black Friday session, lifted by select technology stocks, while retail was in focus as the holiday shopping season kicked off.
Information technology stocks including Nvidia helped boost the benchmark S&P 500, while the industrial and financial sectors lifted the blue-chip Dow. Nvidia gained about 2.4%.
Investors monitored shoppers’ response to deep Black Friday discounts. Adobe Analytics estimated consumers would spend a record $10.8 billion in online purchases, up 9.9% from Black Friday last year.
Shares of Target rose 0.5%, Hasbro gained 1.2%, Macy’s was up almost 1% and Nike also gained 1%.
As of 11:07 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 201.71 points, or 0.45%, to 44,921.11, the S&P 500 gained 30.88 points, or 0.51%, to 6,029.62 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 130.04 points, or 0.68%, to 19,190.71.
The S&P 500 index breached its last intraday record high of 6,025.42 set on Nov. 26.
“Retailers do a lot of importing. Inventory levels are very important to their profitability and ability to kind of control margins, so they will be one of the industries in the (tariffs) crossfire,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird.
“But so far ... (things are) looking pretty solid for the Black Friday, Cyber Monday sale.” Chip stocks rebounded from Wednesday’s declines, sending the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index up 2.3%.
The small-cap Russell 2000 index rose almost 0.7% as Treasury bond yields retreated further from multi-month highs.
Wall Street’s main indexes closed lower on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq leading declines, as technology stocks slumped on Thanksgiving eve on worries the Federal Reserve may be cautious about rate cuts following stubbornly strong US inflation data.
The three main indexes were on track for monthly gains, with the S&P 500 set for its biggest one-month rise since November 2023. The Russell 2000 index hit a record high earlier in the week, on pace for its steepest monthly rise so far this year.
Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election earlier this month, along with his Republican Party winning the majority in both houses of Congress, provided the latest boost to equities.
Investors were pricing in expectations that Trump’s pro-business policies could spur economic growth and corporate profits.
However, concerns prevailed that they could also stoke inflation, slow the pace of the Fed’s rate cuts and weigh on global growth.
Traders expect the US central bank to lower borrowing costs by 25 basis points at its December meeting, but see it pausing rate cuts in January, the CME Group’s FedWatch showed.
Crypto stocks rose as bitcoin climbed 2.5% to about $97,000. MicroStrategy rose 3% and MARA Holdings surged 11%.
Applied Therapeutics plunged almost 75% after the US Food and Drug Administration declined to approve its drug for the treatment of a rare genetic metabolic disease.
Analysts expect stock moves to be exaggerated by thin volumes after Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.14-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 234 new highs and 49 new lows on the NYSE.
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