Stocks rose on Friday as Wall Street ended the week strong amid ongoing positive vaccine sentiment and decreasing political uncertainty. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both closed at record highs to cap off the shortened trading session, while all three market benchmarks ended the week up over 2%.
President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that he will be willing to leave the White House if President-elect Joe Biden is able to secure the Electoral College vote in mid-December. Market participants took this as a positive sign that the transition between the two administrations will be smoother than previously anticipated.
The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX)--which is known better as Wall Street's fear index--dipped below 20 for the first time since late February, showing another sign that the market is settling down as potential coronavirus vaccines bring more optimism toward economic recovery.
Adobe Analytics announced that Thanksgiving Day online sales rose to a record $5.1 billion. But those gains came with a catch:
"While yesterday was a record-breaking Thanksgiving Day with over $5 billion spent online, it didn't come with the kind of aggressive growth rate we've seen with the start of the pandemic. Heavy discounts and aggressive promotion starting in early November succeeded at getting consumers to open their wallets earlier. While COVID-19, the elections and uncertainty around stimulus packages imposte consumer shopping behavior and made this an unprecedented year in ecommerce, many consumers are still holding off on remaining gift purchases until today and Cyber Monday in hopes of scoring the best deals." said Taylor Schreiner, a director at Adobe Analytics, in a statement.
Here's how the market closed out the shortened trading week:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +0.24% or +8.70 points to 3,638.35
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +0.13% or +37.90 points to 29,910.37
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +0.92% or +111.44 points to 12,205.85
For Stocks, retail names held gains throughout Friday's session as investors began betting on a strong holiday shopping season. Big names like Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Etsy (NASDAQ: ETSY) and Shopify (NYSE: SHOP) rose modestly, while GameStop gained over 10% as traders bet on increased sales due to Sony PlayStation's (NYSE: SNE) and Microsoft Xbox's (NASDAQ: MSFT) new console launches. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF (NYSE: XRT) also reached a new all-time high on Friday. Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) shares jumped on Friday after AstraZeneca's (NASDAQ: AZN) CEO announced that the company will run another clinical trial for its coronavirus vaccine candidate to address questions over the drug's effectiveness. Other vaccine frontrunners Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and BioNTech (NASDAQ: BTNX) also increased, but market participants are betting more on Monderna's success. Tesla's (NASDAQ: TSLA) market capitalization rose to more than $560 billion, surpassing Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A).
For Sector Performance, five out of the 11 sectors on the S&P 500 gained to cap off the shortened trading week. Health Care (NYSE: XLV) was the surprising leader on Friday, gaining almost 1%. The rest of the positive performance gainers included Communication Services (NYSE: XLC), Information Technology (NYSE: XLK), Materials (NYSE: XLB) and Consumer Discretionary (NYSE: XLY). Energy (NYSE: XLE) fell the lowest at over 1%, while Utilities (NYSE: XLU) and Financials (NYSE: XLF) rounded out the bottom three.
For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) fell lower on Friday, dipping to its lowest level in almost three months, after this week's vaccine rally continued benefit risk sentiment. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against other global currencies, declined 0.24% after reaching its lowest level since September. The dollar has fallen more than 2% so far this month. Gold (NYSE: GLD) also fell 2%, with the yellow metal falling below the key $1,800 level as optimism continued surrounding vaccines and economic recovery. Spot gold dropped 1.4% to $1,785.11 per ounce, with the bullion falling nearly 5% for the week. U.S. gold futures settled 1.2% lower to $1,784 per ounce on Friday. Crude oil futures ended Friday's session mixed, but both benchmarks rose about 7% on positive vaccine tailwinds. International benchmark Brent Crude (NYSE: BNO) contracts for January rose 0.4% to $47.99 per barrel, while the more active February contract increased by $0.24 to $48.03 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO), however, slipped 0.9% to $45.32 per barrel. Oil benchmarks are betting on more relief from OPEC+'s meeting early next week.
For the week ahead, benchmarks are expected to close out November with record monthly gains.