Stocks Notch Gains for Holiday Week



The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose Friday, notching a gain during the holiday-shortened trading week.

The 30-stock index hiked 152.97 points to begin Friday at 34,347.03, marking the third consecutive session of gains.

The S&P 500 faded 1.14 points to 4,026.12.

The NASDAQ fell 58.96 points to 11,253.22, weighed down by shares of Activision Blizzard, which fell 4% on news that the FTC could block Microsoft from taking over the gaming company.

All three indexes ended the week higher. The Dow is up 1.8%, and the S&P 500 is up 1.5% during the short week. The tech-heavy NASDAQ is lagging the other two indexes but is still up 0.7% in the same timeframe.

Next week, investors will be watching for more earnings reports from companies such as Kroger and Ulta Beauty on deck. On the economic front, traders will be watching further comments from Fed officials, as well as the release of the personal consumption expenditure report on

Thursday — the central bank’s preferred inflation indicator. The November jobs print is due next Friday.

Worries about continued lockdowns in China kept markets in check. The country is ramping up COVID restrictions after seeing climbing case counts in recent days. Earlier in the week, China reported its first COVID deaths since May.

Markets were closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday and closed at 1 p.m. EST on Friday.

Prices for the 10-year Treasury regained ground, lowering yields to 3.69% from Wednesday’s 3.70%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Oil prices slumped $1.27 to $76.67 U.S. a barrel.

Gold prices grew $7.50 to $1,753.10 U.S. an ounce.