New York – November 28, 2025
The Nasdaq Composite is ending the week on a positive note, climbing in a shortened Black Friday session as Wall Street looks past a major futures outage and leans back into large-cap tech, AI and crypto‑sensitive names. Early trading saw the index up around 0.3–0.4%, roughly in line with the S&P 500 and ahead of the Dow in percentage terms. [1]
With the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq cash markets closing at 1 p.m. ET today, volumes are thinner than usual, but the move keeps the tech‑heavy benchmark on track for a strong week even as November remains a losing month overall. [2]
Key takeaways for Nasdaq today (November 28, 2025)
- Nasdaq up roughly 0.3–0.4% in a holiday‑shortened Black Friday session, after opening about 0.33% higher at 23,291.6. [3]
- CME Group outage tied to a data–center cooling issue briefly froze index, bond and commodity futures overnight, but regular stock trading on Nasdaq has been running normally. [4]
- Big Tech and AI remain in focus: Meta and Micron are higher, while Nvidia and Oracle trade lower, reflecting ongoing volatility in the AI trade. [5]
- Crypto‑linked names catch a bid as Bitcoin pops back above $92,000, lifting Coinbase and other digital‑asset plays. [6]
- For November, Nasdaq is still down about 2%, snapping a seven‑month winning streak, even though the index is up roughly 4% for the week. [7]
How the Nasdaq is trading on Black Friday
Today’s Black Friday session comes after the Thanksgiving market holiday and is one of the shortest trading days of the year. The Nasdaq, along with other major U.S. exchanges, opened at 9:30 a.m. ET and will close at 1 p.m. ET, with bond markets running until 2 p.m. ET. [8]
At the opening bell, Wall Street shrugged off the earlier futures disruption. The Nasdaq Composite added about 76.9 points, or 0.33%, to trade near 23,291.6, while the S&P 500 and Dow also opened modestly higher. [9]
As the morning progressed, the tech‑heavy benchmark extended those gains. Multiple live market updates and news reports show the Nasdaq ahead by roughly 0.3–0.4%, putting it fractionally ahead of the S&P 500 in percentage terms, while the Dow adds around 120–140 points. [10]
The Nasdaq‑100 tracker Invesco QQQ is echoing that move, trading about 0.4% higher in early‑afternoon dealings, with an intraday high just above $617. [11]
CME outage rattles futures, but cash Nasdaq trading stays calm
The most dramatic storyline around markets today actually happened before the cash open. Overnight, CME Group halted trading across a wide swath of futures and options contracts—covering equity indexes, Treasuries, currencies and commodities—after a cooling failure at a CyrusOne data center. [12]
According to CME and several news outlets, all non‑European CME markets were halted for several hours while the problem was addressed. Before the outage, U.S. index futures were only modestly higher: Nasdaq 100 futures were up around 0.18%, Dow futures roughly 0.11%, and S&P 500 futures about 0.1%. [13]
By around 8:30 a.m. ET, CME said systems had been brought back online and futures trading resumed, allowing Wall Street’s major cash indexes—including the Nasdaq—to open smoothly in positive territory. [14]
For Nasdaq traders, the key takeaway is that the glitch hit derivatives, not the core stock market:
- Regular Nasdaq equity trading opened on time and has continued uninterrupted. [15]
- The early scare didn’t translate into a sustained risk‑off move; rather, the Nasdaq has ground higher through the morning. [16]
Still, the episode is a reminder of how dependent modern markets are on a handful of infrastructure hubs—a theme institutional investors are likely to revisit in risk reviews after the holiday.
Big Tech, AI plays and crypto stocks driving the Nasdaq
Even on a holiday‑thinned Friday, the Nasdaq story is still largely about mega‑cap technology and AI.
Mixed day for the “AI complex”
Associated Press reporting highlights a split tape across some of the index’s biggest tech names: Meta Platforms is up around 1.4%, and Micron Technology is roughly 2.8% higher, but Nvidia is down about 1% and Oracle is off more than 2%. [17]
That pattern fits with the broader November theme described in recent Reuters coverage: investors are increasingly questioning how quickly enormous AI infrastructure spending will translate into real profits, leading to sharp swings in individual names even as the broader market recovers from its biggest pullback since April. [18]
Earlier this week, a Zacks‑authored recap published on Nasdaq.com noted that the Nasdaq Composite finished Wednesday’s pre‑holiday session 0.8% higher at 23,214.69, powered by “artificial intelligence bigwigs,” with AppLovin surging about 5.5%. [19] That kind of outsized move in AI‑linked software and ad‑tech names has been a recurring driver behind the index’s outperformance this year.
Fresh research from Barchart shows AppLovin shares up more than 80% year‑to‑date, dramatically outpacing the S&P 500’s mid‑teens gain, underscoring how much AI‑adjacent software has contributed to tech‑index returns. [20]
Crypto bounce lifts Coinbase and other Nasdaq names
Crypto‑sensitive stocks are also adding a tech‑flavored twist to today’s move. AP reporting notes that Coinbase Global is up roughly 3.5–4% as Bitcoin rebounds above $92,000 after dipping near $81,000 last week. [21]
A live blog from 24/7 Wall St. points out that some strategists now see a path for Bitcoin to eventually revisit the $100,000 level, a shift that’s boosting interest in miners and crypto‑exposed equities listed on Nasdaq, including MicroStrategy, Riot Platforms and MARA Holdings. [22]
In a separate Reuters “Week Ahead” piece, strategists even describe Bitcoin as an informal proxy for risk appetite in equities—meaning its rebound is another tailwind for growth‑heavy benchmarks like the Nasdaq Composite. [23]
Holiday and travel trades on the Nasdaq radar
While the Nasdaq is best known for its tech giants, consumer and travel stocks are very much part of today’s narrative as Black Friday kicks off the core holiday spending season.
An Economic Times wrap‑up notes that airline stocks are outperforming, helped by Federal Aviation Administration projections for the busiest Thanksgiving travel stretch in 15 years, with more than 360,000 flights expected over the holiday period. Alaska Air, United Airlines and JetBlue are each up around 0.3–0.4% in today’s session. [24]
On the consumer side, 24/7 Wall St. highlights Adobe and Salesforce estimates showing:
- Global online spending on Thursday (Thanksgiving) rising about 8% year‑over‑year to roughly $13.1 billion.
- Black Friday online sales expected to push toward the mid‑teens billions in the U.S. alone, with total holiday‑season e‑commerce projected above $250 billion. [25]
That’s crucial for Nasdaq because its roster includes some of the biggest beneficiaries of digital spending: Amazon, major payment networks, cloud‑software vendors and a host of online‑first retailers and platforms. Strong early data doesn’t guarantee a blockbuster season, but it helps underwrite the case for resilient consumer demand—at least for now.
November’s pullback: Nasdaq still in the red for the month
Despite today’s bounce and a solid week, November is still shaping up as a losing month for the Nasdaq.
According to The Economic Times, the Nasdaq Composite remains down nearly 2% for November as of today, snapping a seven‑month winning streak. The S&P 500 is only marginally lower for the month, while the Dow is close to flat. [26]
Some of the pressure has come from:
- Valuation anxiety in AI and “Magnificent 7” names. Reuters notes that the Nasdaq is about 3% below its late‑October peak, with investors re‑evaluating how quickly AI spending by giants like Alphabet, Microsoft and Nvidia will translate into earnings growth. [27]
- A sharp Bitcoin correction from more than $125,000 in early October to below $90,000 in recent days, a move some strategists cite as a sign of cooling risk appetite. [28]
Yet, the picture looks very different if you zoom out:
- For this week, the Economic Times estimates that the Nasdaq is up roughly 4%, outperforming both the Dow and S&P 500. [29]
- For 2025 as a whole, Morningstar reporting indicates that information‑technology is still one of the best‑performing S&P 500 sectors, with returns north of 20%, even after the November wobble. [30]
In other words, the recent pullback has dented momentum but hasn’t broken the longer‑term leadership of tech and growth stocks that dominate the Nasdaq.
Fed, data and AI: what Nasdaq traders are watching next
Today’s move in the Nasdaq is happening against a macro backdrop that still matters as much as any single stock.
Rate‑cut hopes into the December Fed meeting
AP and Reuters reporting both emphasize that traders are increasingly convinced the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again at its December 9–10 meeting. Fed funds futures tracked by CME’s FedWatch tool now imply odds north of 80% for another quarter‑point cut, up from roughly a coin‑flip just a week ago. [31]
The Fed has already reduced rates twice this year as it tries to support a cooling labor market without reigniting inflation. A further cut would generally be supportive for growth and tech names by lowering discount rates and easing financing conditions—good news for many Nasdaq constituents, though not a cure‑all if earnings disappoint.
A data “fog” after the government shutdown
Another nuance: several key U.S. economic data releases were delayed or canceled because of the 43‑day government shutdown that ended earlier this month. [32]
That means investors won’t get a fully clear picture of the economy until more complete data arrives in January. In the meantime, upcoming reports on manufacturing and services activity, consumer sentiment, and earnings from companies like Salesforce, Kroger and Dollar Tree will be parsed for clues about growth—and, by extension, Nasdaq earnings power. [33]
AI profitability and “Magnificent 7” rotation
Looking beyond Black Friday, Reuters’ “Week Ahead” piece highlights what might be the single biggest swing factor for the Nasdaq into year‑end: how the market digests news around AI profitability.
- Alphabet’s market value has climbed toward $4 trillion on the back of excitement around its Gemini 3 AI model and chip partnerships.
- Reports of Meta potentially spending billions on Google’s AI chips have rattled Nvidia, long the primary hardware winner in the AI boom. [34]
If investors stay convinced that AI spending will generate strong returns, the Nasdaq could continue to lead. If not, rotations into more rate‑sensitive or value‑oriented areas of the market are likely to accelerate.
Bottom line: A quietly important day for the Nasdaq
On the surface, Nasdaq today is “just” modestly higher in a sleepy, post‑holiday session. Underneath, however, several bigger themes are in play:
- Market infrastructure resilience after the CME outage.
- The delicate balance between AI excitement and earnings reality.
- The early verdict on holiday spending and travel demand.
- Rising confidence in a December Fed rate cut, despite patchy economic data.
For now, the tech‑heavy index is managing to grind higher into the last month of 2025, even as November goes down as its first red month since April. Where it goes from here will likely be decided less by what happened in today’s thin Black Friday session and more by December’s data, Fed decisions and the next round of AI headlines.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security.
References
1. www.reuters.com, 2. www.nasdaq.com, 3. www.reuters.com, 4. www.reuters.com, 5. www.seattlepi.com, 6. www.seattlepi.com, 7. m.economictimes.com, 8. www.nasdaq.com, 9. www.reuters.com, 10. m.economictimes.com, 11. m.economictimes.com, 12. www.reuters.com, 13. m.economictimes.com, 14. www.reuters.com, 15. m.economictimes.com, 16. www.reuters.com, 17. www.seattlepi.com, 18. www.reuters.com, 19. www.nasdaq.com, 20. www.barchart.com, 21. www.seattlepi.com, 22. 247wallst.com, 23. www.reuters.com, 24. m.economictimes.com, 25. 247wallst.com, 26. m.economictimes.com, 27. www.reuters.com, 28. www.reuters.com, 29. m.economictimes.com, 30. www.morningstar.com, 31. www.seattlepi.com, 32. www.reuters.com, 33. www.reuters.com, 34. www.reuters.com
