NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are higher as Wall Street puts the finishing touches on one of its best months of the year.
The S&P rose 0.7% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 306 points, or 0.7%, as of 12:05 p.m. ET. The Nasdaq added 0.8% and the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 0.4%.
Friday is an abbreviated trading day — stock markets close at 1 p.m. ET and the bond market closes an hour later.
Investors are waiting to see how willing shoppers are to spend on gifts for the holidays. Black Friday unofficially kicks off the holiday shopping season, although retailers have been offering early deals for weeks. Macy’s rose 1.9% and Best Buy gained 2.8% while Nordstrom fell 0.6%.
Apple rose 0.8%. The technology giant is hoping recently added artificial intelligence features are enough to entice consumers to treat themselves or their relatives to a new iPhone for the holidays.
The Dow is up nearly 8% so far this month, easily on pace for its best month of 2024. The Walt Disney Co. has the biggest percentage gain for November at 22%, but the price-weighted index also got a boost from Goldman Sachs, up 16.7% and Salesforce, up more than 13% for the month.
The S&P 500 has risen more than 6% this month, boosted by Tesla and other stocks that received a boost from Donald Trump’s win in the presidential election. Discover Financial Services leads a list of financials stocks having a good November, up 0.4% Friday and 23.5% for the month as investors believe the credit card company’s merger with Capital One has a greater chance of going through under Trump.
Tesla shares rose 2.4% Friday and have gained more than 36% in November. The electric vehicle maker is expected to benefit from CEO Elon Musk’s support of Trump.
Musk also gave a boost to Hasbro shares after he triggered takeover speculation when he asked in a post on X how much the toy and game company was worth. Hasbro, which owns the role-playing game Dungeon & Dragons, rose 1.4%.
Bond yields fell, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury slipping to 4.20%.
Bitcoin, which recently made a run at $100,000 before dropping back, briefly rose back above $98,000 but was recently trading around $97,400.
Global markets mostly fell. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.4% after the government reported that inflation in Tokyo, considered an indicator for national trends, was 2.6% in November, up from 1.8% last month mainly due to a surge in fresh food prices.
Chinese markets advanced. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.3%. Meanwhile, the Shanghai Composite index rose 0.9%. Gains in retailers’ stocks drove market gains after a two-day meeting in Beijing focused on promoting consumption ended on Thursday.
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Zimo Zhong in Hong Kong contributed to this report.