The Dow and S&P 500 hit new closing highs in abbreviated Black Friday trading, boosted by some technology stocks as the holiday season begins and all eyes are on retail.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 300 points to close at 44,910.65, up 188.59 points, or 0.4%.
The S&P 500 rose 0.6% to 6,032.38 and the Nasdaq rose 0.8%.
All three major indexes rose more than 1% this week, with the Dow and S&P 500 up 7.5% and 5.7%, respectively, making it the best month of the year.
Information technology stocks such as Nvidia contributed to the rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index, while the industrial and financial sectors pushed up the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Investors were monitoring shoppers' reaction to deep Black Friday discounts. Adobe Analytics predicts that consumers will spend a record $10.8 billion on online purchases, a 9.9% increase from last year's Black Friday.
Shares of Target, Hasbro, and Macy's rose.
“Retailers do a lot of importing. Inventory levels are very important to profitability and the ability to control profit margins, so these industries are among the ones targeted by the barrage (of tariffs). '' said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird.
“But so far…(things) are looking pretty solid heading into the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.”
Semiconductor stocks rebounded from Wednesday's losses, lifting the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index.
The small-cap Russell 2000 index also rose as Treasury yields fell further from multi-month highs.
Wall Street's major indexes closed lower on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq leading the decline and the Federal Reserve wary of cutting interest rates on Thanksgiving eve after solid U.S. inflation data. Tech stocks fell on fears that the
Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election earlier this month and his Republican Party gaining majorities in both chambers of Congress have been a recent driver for stocks.
Investors had priced in hopes that President Trump's pro-business policies could boost economic growth and corporate profits. But there were concerns that it could spur inflation, slow the pace of Fed interest rate cuts and weigh on global growth.
Traders expect the central bank to cut borrowing costs by 25 basis points at its December meeting, but expect it to pause rate cuts in January. CME Group FedWatch showed.
Cryptocurrency stocks also rose, trading at around $97,000 as Bitcoin rose 2.5%. MARA Holdings rose 1.9% and Bit Digital rose 4.1%.
Applied Therapeutics plunged 76% after the Food and Drug Administration denied approval for the drug to treat a rare genetic metabolic disease.
