US stocks experienced a modest increase in trading volume following the Thanksgiving holiday, primarily propelled by gains in the retail sector and a recovery in technology stocks. The market sentiment was further bolstered by growing expectations for a potential interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve in December.
All major sectors of the S&P 500, with the exception of healthcare, showed positive movement on Friday, contributing to an overall optimistic outlook. Despite this day’s gains, the three principal US stock indexes reflected a downturn for the month, indicating investors’ concerns regarding inflated valuations within the AI and technology sectors. Many opted to take profits and reduce their market exposure.
Cole Smead, CEO of Smead Capital Management, commented on the trading environment, stating, “This is a light volume post-holiday session, as those tend to be, with not much activity. But I think everyone woke up to the fact that the outcome of AI is still very unknown.”
According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 rose by 35.63 points, or 0.52 percent, concluding the session at 6,848.24 points. The Nasdaq Composite increased by 150.31 points, or 0.65 percent, finishing at 23,365.00 points. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 279.11 points, or 0.59 percent, to reach 47,705.31 points.
Trading was briefly interrupted earlier in the day due to an outage at the CME Group, which temporarily froze currencies, commodities, and equity contracts globally. This disruption is significant, as CME’s stock futures linked to US markets are heavily traded before the opening of the US markets, providing essential insights into market trends. The outage was attributed to a cooling issue at its CyrusOne data centres. Shares of CME Group experienced a slight uptick despite the incident.
Joe Saluzzi, partner and co-founder at Themis Trading, remarked on the day’s trading conditions, stating, “We’re kind of lucky today. It was such a low-volume day, but it could have had a much bigger effect. It does point to the risk of these failures and the connectedness to the markets that could cause bigger problems.”
This week also marked the beginning of the holiday shopping season, commencing with Thanksgiving, followed by Black Friday and Cyber Monday. These days are pivotal for major retailers, as they set the tone for consumer spending during the holiday period. Retail performance during this time will be closely monitored, as it could further influence market trends and investor sentiment in the weeks to come.
