Stocks closed with solid gains Friday as Wall Street put the finishing touches on one of its best months of the year.
- The S&P rose 0.7%.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained188 points, or 0.4%.
- The Nasdaq added 0.8%.
Friday was an abbreviated trading day, with stocks closing at 1pm Eastern and the bond market an hour later. Investors were looking to see how much shoppers are willing 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 1.8% and Best Buy gained 2.1%. Apple rose 1.1%. 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 rose 7.5% in November, easily its best month of 2024. The Walt Disney Co. has the biggest percentage gain for the month at 22.1%, but the price-weighted index also got a boost from Goldman Sachs, up 17.5% to $608.57 and Salesforce, up more than 13% to $329.99.
- The S&P 500 gained 5.7% this month, driven 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 financial stocks that had a good November, up nearly 23% for the month despite a small loss Friday.
- Tesla shares rose 3.7% 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 2%.
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