U.S. stock markets wrapped up a holiday-shortened Black Friday session on November 28, 2025, with all three major indexes closing higher, extending a multi-day rally. The positive momentum was largely driven by persistent hopes for future interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and a batch of encouraging economic data. Despite a brief disruption in futures trading due to a technical issue, investor sentiment remained robust as the week concluded with significant gains across the board.<\/p>\n
On Friday, November 28, 2025, the major U.S. stock indexes demonstrated a strong close in an abbreviated trading session. The Dow Jones<\/a> Industrial Average (DJIA<\/a>) advanced 0.6%, adding 314.67 points to close at 47,427.12. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (IXIC<\/a>) saw a rise of 0.7%, finishing at 23,214.69. Meanwhile, the S&P 500<\/a> (SPX<\/a>) gained 0.5%, concluding the day at 6,812.61. These gains marked the fifth consecutive session of increases for all three benchmarks.<\/p>\n For the week, the performance was particularly strong, with the Nasdaq surging 4.9%, the S&P 500 up approximately 3.7%, and the Dow gaining about 3.2%. However, November proved to be a mixed month. While the S&P 500 and Dow managed to extend their monthly winning streaks to seven months, the Nasdaq Composite snapped its impressive seven-month streak, ending November down 1.5%. This monthly decline for the Nasdaq was attributed to investors reassessing the profitability timelines for major artificial intelligence (AI) companies.<\/p>\n Looking ahead, market participants are closely monitoring several key developments. The prospect of another interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve next month continues to be a significant driver of market optimism. Recent reports indicate that White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett has emerged as a key contender for the next Fed Chairman, with an announcement from President Trump<\/a> expected before Christmas. Such a decision could significantly influence monetary policy expectations.<\/p>\n On the economic data front, the Department of Labor reported that initial jobless claims decreased by 6,000 to 216,000 for the week ended November 22, falling below the consensus estimate of 229,000. This strong labor market data further bolstered investor confidence. Additionally, the Department of Commerce noted that orders for durable goods rose by 0.5% in September, although this missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Non-defense capital goods orders, excluding aircraft, a crucial indicator for business spending, increased by 0.9% in September.<\/p>\n While the immediate focus on Friday was on the shortened trading session, the broader economic landscape, including inflation trends and future Fed actions, remains paramount. No significant U.S. earnings announcements were scheduled or reported after the market close on this abbreviated trading day.<\/p>\n Several individual stocks made headlines during Friday's trading session. Chipmaker Intel (INTC<\/a>) was a standout performer, surging 10.2% to lead the S&P 500. This significant jump followed analyst speculation that Intel could become a foundry supplier for Apple (AAPL<\/a>) processors, adding fuel to earlier rumors of a potential deal with the iPhone maker.<\/p>\n Conversely, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly (LLY<\/a>) saw its shares slip by 2.6%, giving back some of the recent gains that had propelled the drugmaker to a market capitalization exceeding $1 trillion. Sales of the company's popular weight-loss drugs have been a key factor in its recent ascent.<\/p>\n In the technology sector, while many large-cap tech names saw gains, some AI darlings experienced pressure. Nvidia (NVDA<\/a>) shares slid 1.8%, continuing a trend seen earlier in the week amid concerns about competitive threats. Oracle (ORCL<\/a>), a database and networking software giant, also lost 1.5%. However, other tech stalwarts like Microsoft (MSFT<\/a>) were up 1.3%, Amazon (AMZN<\/a>) gained 1.8%, Meta Platforms (META<\/a>) rose 2.3%, Broadcom (AVGO<\/a>) increased by 1.4%, and Tesla (TSLA<\/a>) was up 0.8%. Alphabet (GOOGL<\/a>) remained roughly flat.<\/p>\n Retailers generally performed well on Black Friday, traditionally a major shopping day. Walmart (WMT<\/a>), Target (TGT<\/a>), and Amazon (AMZN<\/a>) all finished up roughly 1% to 2%. AppLovin Corp. (APP<\/a>), an AI-powered technology services company, was a major gainer on the Nasdaq, with its stock price surging 5.5%.<\/p>\n Cryptocurrency-related stocks also experienced a boost as Bitcoin (BTCUSD<\/a>) moved back above $90,000. Shares of Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA<\/a>), MicroStrategy (MSTR<\/a>), and Coinbase Global (COIN<\/a>) were up by 7%, 5%, and 5% respectively. Additionally, Sandisk (SNDK<\/a>), a maker of flash memory cards, gained close to 4% as it debuted in the S&P 500. Natural gas producer and pipeline operator EQT (EQT<\/a>) also saw gains of over 3% as natural gas futures prices moved higher due to colder weather forecasts.<\/p>\n In summary, Friday's shortened trading session saw U.S. markets close higher, extending weekly gains driven by optimism around potential rate cuts and positive economic indicators. While some tech stocks faced headwinds, a broad rally across sectors, including retail and cryptocurrency-linked companies, underscored a resilient market sentiment heading into the final month of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" U.S. stock markets wrapped up a holiday-shortened Black Friday session on November 28, 2025, with all three major indexes closing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,6824],"tags":[5160,5453,95,6181,1876,6634,3702,6658,3703,6761,3710,4222,15184,4345,4350,4380],"class_list":["post-56624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-market-update","category-featured","tag-economic-data","tag-retail","tag-nasdaq","tag-apple","tag-sp-500","tag-intel","tag-nvidia","tag-ai-stocks","tag-ai","tag-eli-lilly","tag-federal-reserve","tag-interest-rates","tag-black-friday","tag-tech-stocks","tag-dow-jones","tag-stock-market"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Upcoming Market Events and Economic Data<\/h2>\n
Major Stock News and Developments<\/h2>\n