US stock markets opened with moderate gains on Friday as Wall Street conducted its final trading session of November under a shortened post-Thanksgiving schedule. The limited trading day saw early closure at 1 p.m. ET following Thursday's holiday break.
Market Performance Highlights
The S&P 500 index advanced by 0.2 percent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 66 points. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite demonstrated stronger performance with a 0.4 percent increase. This trading session marked Wall Street's attempt to avoid its first monthly decline since April, with the S&P 500 entering Friday down just 0.4 percent for November after achieving a four-day winning streak.
Among individual stocks, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global saw significant movement, climbing 2.2 percent as Bitcoin maintained its position above the $92,000 threshold. In premarket trading, Coinbase had already shown strength with a 2.7 percent gain while Bitcoin held above $91,000.
Tech Stocks and Early Trading Disruption
Major technology companies generally performed well during the session. Alphabet, Google's parent company, gained 1.8 percent, while Micron Technology rose 2.1 percent. However, not all tech stocks followed this positive trend, with Oracle experiencing a 3 percent decline.
The trading day began with unexpected technical difficulties. Futures trading was halted for several hours due to a technical outage at a CyrusOne data center that affected the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Once the issue was resolved, Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq futures resumed trading with gains between 0.2 and 0.3 percent. The CME confirmed that single-stock futures remained unaffected by the technical problems.
Global Market Movements
European markets mirrored the cautious optimism seen in US trading. Germany's DAX, Britain's FTSE 100, and France's CAC 40 all recorded 0.2 percent gains. Traders across Europe awaited inflation data from the eurozone scheduled for release later in the day.
Asian markets presented a mixed picture. Japan's Nikkei 225 closed 0.2 percent higher following surprising positive data showing increased housing starts and steady core inflation in Tokyo. Conversely, South Korea's Kospi fell sharply by 1.5 percent after industrial output data revealed a significant decline. Hong Kong's Hang Seng experienced a minor 0.3 percent slip, while Shanghai's Composite index edged up 0.3 percent.
In commodity markets, Brent crude oil declined to $62.70 per barrel, while US crude oil prices increased to $58.91 per barrel, reflecting the ongoing volatility in energy markets.
