Black Friday turned out to be a surprisingly mixed day of both pandemic worries and vaccine optimism as Britain gave AstraZeneca the thumbs up despite questions over their trial data and Black Friday sales, though tarnished, still reached a record for online sales. This was balanced by the Nasdaq closing at a record high boding well for a good December market while hospitalizations also set a record at over 89,000. So there was plenty of up and down with the close up a very modest 37 points. Given the holiday and a short Friday session, volume was quite light at 6.8 billion.
FRI NOVEMBER 27, 2020 5:14 PM Thu 11-26 was Thanksgiving, markets closed.
Wall St. gains, Nasdaq hits record
high as holiday shopping begins
DJ: 29,872.47 -173.77 NAS: 12,094.40 +57.62 S&P: 3,629.65 -5.76 11/25
DJ: 29,910.37
+37.90 NAS: 12,205.85 +111.44 S&P: 3,638.35
+8.70 11/27
NEW
YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street stocks advanced, with the Nasdaq closing at a
record high, on Friday in a holiday-shortened week as retailers kicked off the
year-end shopping season amid record COVID-19 hospitalizations. The Nasdaq outperformed as investors favored
tech-related, market-leading stocks that have fared well during the pandemic,
while economically sensitive cyclical stocks weighed. All three indexes rose for the week, in which
the S&P 500 reached a new closing high and the blue-chip Dow ended above
30,000 for the first time ever.
“It’s an abbreviated session and volume is light, so the
only conclusion is that the rally
is not faltering for now,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist
at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.
“It does bode well
for next month,” Cardillo added. “Will we see a Santa rally? Most
likely. Will it be as robust as November? That’s a big question mark.” Retailers opened their doors to Black Friday
shoppers, with social distancing practices and other measures put in place to
mitigate infection risks, while offering steep discounts. “Black Friday has been somewhat tarnished - traffic is down due
to the pandemic - but the good
news is e-commerce sales have reached a new record,” Cardillo said.
“That’s encouraging.”
In the latest development on the road
toward developing a vaccine against COVID-19, Britain gave drugmaker AstraZeneca the green light after
experts raised questions about the vaccine’s trial data. As U.S. hospitalizations for coronavirus set a grim record of more than
89,000, the race for a medical solution to the pandemic has led to
promising vaccines from Pfizer Inc, Moderna Inc and others, fueling optimism
for light at the end of the tunnel.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 37.9 points, or 0.13%, to 29,910.37; the
S&P 500 gained 8.7 points, or 0.24%, at 3,638.35; and the Nasdaq Composite
added 111.44 points, or 0.92%, at 12,205.85. Of the 11 major sectors
in the S&P 500, healthcare companies enjoyed the largest percentage gains
while energy shares had the biggest percentage loss. Chipmaker stocks, which have been resilient
throughout the global health crisis, once again outperformed the broader
market, with the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index rising 1.2%.
Shares of Walt Disney Co dipped 1.3%
after the company said it would lay off about 32,000 workers, up from the
28,000 announced previously. Jobs will be cut mainly at Disney’s theme parks. Tesla Inc built on its recent rally, its shares
advancing 2.0% even as U.S. regulators opened an investigation into front
suspension issues in about 115,000 Tesla vehicles. U.S.-listed shares of iQIYI Inc fell 1.7%
after Reuters reported Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd had
put on hold talks to buy a controlling stake in the video streaming service.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners
on the NYSE by a 1.36-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.73-to-1 ratio favored
advancers. The S&P 500 posted 23 new
52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 154 new highs and
nine new lows.
Volume
on U.S. exchanges was 6.82 billion shares, compared with the 11.03 billion average over the last
20 trading days.
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