The three US stock indices ended the week on the rise, and the Dow Jones index jumped 1.78% in a short week to celebrate the American Thanksgiving Day. On the other hand, the Standard & Poor’s index rose by 1.53%, while the Nasdaq, which was heavy with technology stocks, stabilized and settled with an increase of 0.72%.
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 152.97 points, or 0.45%, to close at 34,347.03 points, marking the third consecutive session of gains. On the other hand, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index decreased by 0.03%, to end the day at 4026.12 points. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.52% to 11,226.36 points, dragged down by Activision Blizzard shares, which fell 4% on the back of news that the Federal Trade Commission may prevent Microsoft from acquiring the gaming company.
Stocks were muted at the start of the week as traders waited for minutes from the Federal Reserve’s November meeting. The minutes showed that the central bank expects the pace of interest rate hikes to slow down in the future, which gave stocks a boost through to the end of the week even amid volatile sessions due to low trading volumes.
The minutes stated that “a large majority of the participants believed that slowing down the pace of increase would be appropriate in the near future.”
A series of strong retail earnings reports pointing to some consumer strength even amid fears of economic weakness also sent stocks higher.
Concerns regarding continued lockdowns in China have kept markets in check, as the country ramps up Covid restrictions following seeing case numbers climb in recent days. Earlier in the week, China reported its first COVID-19 death since May.
European stocks
In Europe, the Stoxx 600 stock index closed flat on Friday, achieving gains for the sixth consecutive week, as hopes of a decline in the pace of interest rate increases offset a broad sale of real estate stocks, while retail companies were affected by fears of a mixed holiday shopping season.
The European index hit its highest level in more than three months earlier in the week.
The European retail index fell 0.6 percent on Black Friday, which marks the start of the shopping season, on the back of a worsening cost-of-living crisis and a shift in attention to the soccer World Cup. The index is among the worst performing sectors in Europe, down 32 percent for the year so far.
The real estate index fell 0.9 percent, following leading the market up in the previous session. British housing stocks led the decline following a survey showed demand for home rentals rose in Britain in October, with potential first-time buyers postponing purchase deals.
However, the Stoxx 600 index rose 1.7 percent this week on indications that the Federal Reserve (the US central bank) may slow the pace of raising interest rates, and following better-than-expected business results came this season.
Credit Suisse shares fell 6.6 percent to a record low in the wake of announcing plans to raise capital and following a report this week showed poor results.
Rockwool shares rose 4 percent following Morgan Stanley raised its target price for the Danish company.
Elia Group shares rose 4 percent following the Belgian electricity grid operator raised its forecast for 2022 and announced a five-year capital spending plan.
(agencies)
