Shares opened mixed on a shortened Black Friday trading day.
By 9:35 a.m. ET, the S&P 500 was down less than 0.1%, the Dow Jones up 0.2% and the Nasdaq down about 0.5%.
The US stock market will close at 1:00 p.m. ET on Friday; the financial markets in the United States were closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving.
Shares ended with gains on Wednesdaythe last full trading session of the week, after minutes from the Fed’s latest meeting signaled a likely slowing in the pace of rate hikes at the central bank’s December meeting.
No major economic data or earnings reports are expected from the US, although investors and analysts will likely remain alert to early reports of resilient consumer demand over the Black Friday holiday.
Adobe Analytics data released earlier this week showed consumer spending rose 0.1% year-on-year in the first three weeks of November.
Energy markets remain the focus of investors’ minds, with WTI crude up about 0.5% after an earlier rise of almost 3% early Friday, a rebound that comes on the back of plunging oil prices. Wednesday oil to 2022 lows.
In overseas markets, equities in Europe were on course for a sixth straight winning week.
Investors also traded news overnight that the People’s Bank of China would cut its reserve requirements for the second time this year in a bid to boost the economy.
After weakening earlier this week, the dollar staged a modest rally early in Friday’s trading session.
In corporate news, Manchester United shares (MANUAL) rose 9% early Friday after gaining 25% on Wednesday as reports keep swirling on a possible sale of the English football club by the Glazer family, also owners of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
As investors in the United States look to the end of November and the end of a difficult year in financial markets, Yahoo Finance Jared Blikre writes in Friday’s Morning Brief that history suggests more positive times may be ahead for market bulls.
In the period spanning the Tuesday before Thanksgiving through the second trading day of the new year, the S&P 500 has been higher 81% of the time since 1950. And in the years that stocks rise during this time, the index gained 3.8%, on average.
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