New York — U.S. stocks finished Black Friday’s abbreviated session higher, extending a late‑November rebound even after a rare futures outage at CME Group briefly froze global derivatives trading ahead of the open.
In a holiday‑shortened session that ended at 1 p.m. ET, the S&P 500 gained around 0.4%, the tech‑heavy Nasdaq 100 added roughly 0.5%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced about 0.6%, according to preliminary data from Bloomberg, Finviz and MarketWatch. [1]
Trading volume was more than 30% below the 30‑day average for most of the day, underscoring how many investors chose to extend the Thanksgiving break rather than trade. [2]
Despite the upbeat finish to the week, November remains a bumpy month for equities. Early month‑end tallies from Reuters and other data providers suggest the S&P 500 is roughly flat to modestly lower — around 0.4% down — for November, which would mark its first monthly decline since April after six straight months of gains. [3]
US stock market today: Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq extend rally
By the closing bell of the Black Friday half‑day session:
- S&P 500: Up about 0.4% on the day, leaving it near the upper end of this week’s trading range. [4]
- Nasdaq 100: Gained roughly 0.5%, helped by a bounce in large‑cap tech such as Intel. [5]
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: Higher by roughly 300 points, or about 0.6%, on track for its fifth straight daily gain and to erase its earlier November losses. [6]
For the week, all three major indices are set to log solid gains as investors lean into expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its December meeting. [7]
For the month, however, the tone is more cautious. Reuters and other outlets note that:
- The S&P 500 is on track for a small November loss (around 0.4%),
- It would be the first down month since April,
- And the pullback reflects anxiety over stretched AI and tech valuations plus the drag from the longest U.S. government shutdown on record earlier this month. [8]
Bloomberg’s wrap characterizes Friday’s bounce as strong enough to “erase” much of the earlier November loss, underscoring how narrow the month‑end margin is — essentially flat to slightly negative depending on the data cut you look at. [9]
CME outage briefly freezes futures, but cash session stays calm
The most unusual headline of the day hit before the stock market even opened.
A technical outage at CME Group, traced to a cooling issue at a CyrusOne data center, halted trading in futures and options on key contracts, including those tied to the Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq, Treasuries, commodities and major currencies. [10]
Key points:
- Futures were frozen for hours in the early morning, leaving traders “flying blind” on price discovery across multiple asset classes. [11]
- CME later restored trading, and futures reopened with only modest gains, suggesting investors viewed the disruption as a technical hiccup rather than a systemic event. [12]
- CME Group’s own stock edged higher as the session progressed, a sign that markets do not expect lasting damage to confidence. [13]
Once the cash equity markets opened at 9:30 a.m. ET, trading on the NYSE and Nasdaq proceeded normally, with the usual Black Friday early close at 1 p.m. ET and the U.S. bond market shutting at 2 p.m. ET. [14]
Black Friday puts retail and e‑commerce stocks in focus
With Black Friday marking the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season, investors zoomed in on retail and e‑commerce names.
From various AP and Bloomberg reports:
- Amazon rose about 1.2%, as investors bet the online giant would again dominate holiday e‑commerce spending. [15]
- Walmart hit or hovered near a record high, having already broken to all‑time highs heading into the Black Friday/Cyber Monday stretch. [16]
- Traditional department stores saw mixed but generally positive moves:
- Macy’s gained roughly 0.6%,
- Kohl’s added about 2%,
- Dick’s Sporting Goods slipped about 1.4%,
- Abercrombie & Fitch jumped roughly 4.4%,
- American Eagle Outfitters was up around 0.7%. [17]
The SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) was only slightly higher on the day, but headed for its best week in six months, a sign that investors have been quietly rotating back into consumer names after the early‑November scare. [18]
Online spending remains the big story: a separate analysis from 24/7 Wall St. estimates Amazon’s Black Friday e‑commerce sales alone at roughly $2 billion, an order of magnitude above most competitors. [19]
Big Tech and crypto: mixed day for market leaders
Mega‑cap tech, the engine of 2025’s rally and of November’s volatility, showed a more nuanced picture:
- Meta Platforms climbed around 1.4–1.5%,
- Micron Technology gained roughly 2.4–2.8%,
- Intel was among the biggest winners in the Nasdaq 100, helping lift that index by about 0.5%. [20]
But not all AI‑linked names participated:
- Nvidia fell about 1–1.4% and is on track for a double‑digit percentage loss for November, as investors reassess how much AI growth is already priced into the stock. [21]
- Oracle slipped roughly 2.1% after a choppy month of trading, continuing a pattern of profit‑taking in some software and cloud names. [22]
Crypto‑linked stocks were more upbeat:
- Coinbase Global jumped about 4.3%
- As Bitcoin rebounded above $92,000, after trading near $81,000 last week. The token is still well below its early‑October record near $125,000, but the bounce has helped ease fears of a deeper crypto correction. [23]
Sector‑wise, most S&P 500 sectors ended in the green, with communications services (home to Alphabet and Meta) and parts of technology leading, while there was some profit‑taking in healthcare, including a pullback in Eli Lilly after a strong year. [24]
Rates, the Fed and the macro story behind the move
Behind the day‑to‑day headlines, Fed expectations and macro data remain the dominant driver of sentiment.
- According to CME FedWatch data cited by Benzinga and others, traders now put roughly an 85–90% chance on a 25‑basis‑point rate cut at the Fed’s December 10 meeting, up from about 50% just a week ago. [25]
- Reuters reports that all three major U.S. indices are set to end the week higher but the month lower, as November’s earlier sell‑off — driven by the long government shutdown and anxiety over inflated AI/tech valuations — still leaves a small monthly deficit for the S&P 500. [26]
- The 10‑year Treasury yield ticked up to just above 4.0%, reflecting a cautious move out of bonds even as equities rallied. [27]
Minutes from the Fed’s October meeting, highlighted in AP coverage, show deep divisions among policymakers over how aggressively to cut rates from here, with some officials worried about still‑sticky inflation and others pointing to softening growth and a weakening labor market. [28]
Globally:
- European equities ended the month with only small gains,
- Asian markets were mixed, with Japan’s Nikkei firming on better‑than‑expected data while South Korea’s Kospi slipped on weak industrial output. [29]
Seasonality and what today’s move means for investors
Black Friday is famous for doorbuster deals, but historically it also often kicks off a favorable seasonal stretch for U.S. stocks, with many “Santa rally” studies showing positive average returns between Thanksgiving and year‑end. [30]
Going into December, several themes stand out:
- Momentum vs. fatigue in AI and megacap tech
- Leaders like Meta and some chipmakers continue to attract inflows,
- But Nvidia’s sharp pullback and a double‑digit monthly loss serve as a reminder that even market darlings can correct quickly when expectations run hot. [31]
- Fed‑driven “risk‑on” mood, but with a narrow margin for error
- Markets are effectively pricing in a December rate cut as the base case, which helps explain the broad rally across equities, crypto and even gold in recent sessions. [32]
- Any surprise from the Fed — whether a smaller cut, a delay, or more hawkish guidance — could quickly pressure the most richly valued parts of the market.
- Light holiday liquidity amplifies moves
- Friday’s trading showed how thin volume can exaggerate swings, both on the downside (during the CME outage) and to the upside as dip‑buyers stepped in. [33]
- Retail and consumer data become the next big catalyst
- With Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales now underway, real‑time spending metrics and retailer commentary will help verify whether the U.S. consumer is still as resilient as stock prices imply. [34]
For now, the message from Wall Street on November 28, 2025 is cautiously optimistic:
- The CME outage ended up being a headline‑grabbing inconvenience rather than a market‑breaking shock. [35]
- Stocks extended their late‑month rebound, delivering a fifth straight day of gains for key indices and, depending on which benchmark you track, either erasing or sharply reducing November’s losses. [36]
- And the Fed’s expected pivot toward another rate cut in December continues to provide the backdrop for a potential year‑end “Santa rally” — albeit one built on narrow leadership and increasingly rich valuations.
As always, investors should remember that past seasonal patterns are no guarantee of future results, and today’s relatively calm finish to a tumultuous month says as much about thin holiday liquidity as it does about any lasting shift in fundamentals.
References
1. www.bloomberg.com, 2. www.bloomberg.com, 3. www.kitco.com, 4. www.bloomberg.com, 5. www.bloomberg.com, 6. www.marketwatch.com, 7. www.kitco.com, 8. www.kitco.com, 9. www.bloomberg.com, 10. www.reuters.com, 11. www.reuters.com, 12. www.reuters.com, 13. www.reuters.com, 14. www.nyse.com, 15. www.bloomberg.com, 16. www.bloomberg.com, 17. www.bastillepost.com, 18. www.marketwatch.com, 19. 247wallst.com, 20. ca.finance.yahoo.com, 21. ca.finance.yahoo.com, 22. ca.finance.yahoo.com, 23. apnews.com, 24. www.reuters.com, 25. www.benzinga.com, 26. www.kitco.com, 27. www.chron.com, 28. www.clickorlando.com, 29. www.kitco.com, 30. www.google.com, 31. ca.finance.yahoo.com, 32. www.benzinga.com, 33. www.bloomberg.com, 34. www.nasdaq.com, 35. www.reuters.com, 36. www.marketscreener.com
