MARKET SNAPSHOT
U.S. stocks rose in a shortened session on Friday. Treasury yields edged up, but remained around their lowest levels since late October. Oil futures ended down in low-volume Black Friday trade. Gold prices rose as optimism over U.S. rate cuts boosted demand. The dollar held broadly steady against a basket of other currencies.
MARKET WRAPS
EQUITIES
U.S. stocks gained in a shortened session on Friday, as investors shrugged off a CME Group outage that disrupted futures trading overnight.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6%, the S&P 500 added 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite increased 0.7%. Some chip makers, including Micron Technology, Analog Devices and Intel, logged bigger gains.
Nonetheless, the Nasdaq Composite registered its first monthly loss since March, after a choppy period when concerns about an AI bubble fueled market volatility. The index fell about 1.5% in November; the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average posted small monthly gains.
CME said its derivatives markets reopened at 8:30 a.m. ET. Friday. Before then, traders hadn't been able to buy or sell CME futures and options, including for U.S. indexes, Treasurys, gold and oil due to cooling problems at a key data center.
Analysts said the CME outage lowered trading volumes on what was already expected to be one of the quietest trading days of the year.
Shares in some U.S. retailers rose as shoppers flocked to snap up Black Friday bargains. Walmart was up over 1%. The National Retail Federation forecast a record 186.9 million people to shop between Thanksgiving and "Cyber Monday" on Dec. 1.
Markets expect the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates again, following signs that the labor market is cooling. Allies of Fed Chair Jerome Powell have laid the groundwork for him to push a cut through a divided committee. Traders have doubled their bets over the last week on a cut to around 87%, according to the CME's FedWatch tool.
Earlier Friday, markets in Asia ended mixed.
China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.3%, the Shenzhen Composite Index rose 1%, and the ChiNext Price Index increased 0.7%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.3%.
Japan's Nikkei Stock Average increased 0.2%.
Stocks in Australia were flat, as the S&P/ASX 200 Benchmark Index held steady.
In New Zealand, the S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 0.4%.
COMMODITIES
Oil futures reversed course late in the session to end down in low-volume Black Friday trade.
The market remained focused on prospects for a Russia-Ukraine peace that could eventually see U.S. sanctions lifted, while the OPEC+ weekend meeting was widely expected to confirm the group's previous decision to pause production increases in the first quarter.
WTI settled down 0.2% at $58.55 a barrel. Brent crude for January went off the board at $63.20 a barrel, down 0.2%, and the February contract fell 0.8% to $62.38.
Gold prices rose as optimism over U.S. rate cuts boosted demand.
Front-month Comex gold for December delivery gained 1.3% to $4218.30 a troy ounce - up for a fifth straight session.
Silver futures jumped more than 6%, topping $56 per troy ounce. Analysts attributed the surge to a supply squeeze, with Chinese inventories at the lowest level in a decade, as well as expectations for another Fed cut.
TODAY'S TOP HEADLINES
A Chicago Data Center Overheated-and Shut Down Trade in Key Markets Across the Globe
Inside a nondescript, boxy building in a Chicago suburb, the heat was rising. This wasn't just an unusual issue for a chilly fall day in Illinois. It was also a problem for global markets.
The facility was a vital data center used by CME Group, the exchange operator behind some of the most heavily traded instruments in international finance-futures tied to U.S. stock indexes, Treasurys, crude oil and more. And temperatures inside the building were soaring toward 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
The result was an outage lasting more than 10 hours, slamming the door on trading in these key contracts from late on Thanksgiving evening through to an hour before Wall Street trading opened on Friday morning. While it didn't stop buying and selling of underlying bonds and stocks, it limited investors' room to maneuver and made it harder to gauge how U.S. markets would move in the final session of the month.
Inside the Shapeshifting AI Trade That Has the Stock Market Heading Higher Again
We're going to need a few more nails.
Just one week ago, the death of the artificial-intelligence trade was the talk of the markets. The debate really began in October, when Meta Platforms released better-than-expected earnings but also increased the amount of money it would spend on data centers and other AI projects, causing the stock to slump.
Nvidia's results after the close on Nov. 19 should have been the final nail in the coffin. The stock opened 5.1% higher the next day, after the company blew past Wall Street's expectations, but finished down 3.2% on concerns that expected growth was dependent on cash that might not materialize.
Week Ahead for FX, Bonds: U.S. ISM, ADP Data in Focus as Fed Rate Cut Looks Likely
U.S. ISM surveys on manufacturing and services activity, plus the latest ADP private payrolls, will be watched closely for confirmation that the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates at its next meeting.
In Europe, eurozone inflation data will attract investors' attention, while Asia sees a slate of growth and inflation data, alongside regional purchasing managers' surveys.
Airbus Grounds 'Significant Number' of A320 Planes
Airbus said roughly 6,000 of its A320 family of planes need immediate updates to software and, in some cases, hardware, and it urged airlines to ground those planes.
A recent event involving an A320 aircraft revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls, the company said Friday.
Airbus has identified "a significant number" of aircraft in that family of planes that could be impacted, potentially delaying or canceling flights in the near-term.
Nexperia Urges China Unit to Restore Chip Flow Amid Fears of Supply Squeeze
Nexperia has urged its China unit to restore the supply of semiconductors key to auto production, warning that customers are facing imminent stoppages.
The Dutch chip maker said in an open letter on Thursday that it hadn't received any meaningful response from its Chinese unit despite multiple attempts to re-establish dialogue. It urged its Chinese partner to respond and take immediate steps to restore predictable and established supply flows.
"This is in the interest of all parties involved, including notably our customers," Nexperia added.
Rio Tinto CEO's Big Test: What to Do With Lithium
Rio Tinto last year bet big on lithium. Its new chief executive officer will next week set out whether the commodity has a prominent future at the world's second-largest mining company.
Simon Trott, who took charge of Rio Tinto in August, has promised changes that analysts speculate could include asset sales, cost cuts and slower developments. On Thursday, he will lay out a detailed vision for the company for the first time at an investor gathering in London.
"The changes we are making are not incremental-they are fundamental," Trott told employees last month in a memo seen by The Wall Street Journal.
Expected Major Events for Monday
00:00/AUS: Nov Melbourne Institute Monthly Inflation Gauge
00:30/JPN: Nov Japan Manufacturing PMI
00:30/SKA: Nov South Korea Manufacturing PMI
00:30/TAI: Nov Taiwan Manufacturing PMI
00:30/PHI: Nov Philippines Manufacturing PMI
00:30/THA: Nov Thailand Manufacturing PMI
00:30/INA: Nov Indonesia Manufacturing PMI
00:30/MAL: Nov Malaysia Manufacturing PMI
00:30/AUS: 3Q Business Indicators
00:30/AUS: Nov ANZ-Indeed Job Ads
01:45/CHN: Nov China Manufacturing PMI
04:00/INA: Oct Trade Balance
04:00/INA: Nov CPI
05:00/JPN: Nov Auto sales
05:30/AUS: Nov Commodity Price Index
08:00/TAI: Nov CIER PMI
08:30/HK: Oct Retail Sales
08:59/SKA: Nov Trade data
21:45/NZ: 3Q International Trade - Overseas Trade Indexes (Volumes / Prices)
23:00/SKA: Nov CPI
23:50/JPN: Nov Monetary Base
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 30, 2025 16:30 ET (21:30 GMT)
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