It was a quiet end to the holiday-shortened week. Today's session was abbreviated, with the stock market closing at 1 pm Eastern time. But while the price action in the main market indexes was muted, several single stocks made notable moves.
Many market participants stayed off the clock this Black Friday, with volume notably low in today's shortened session. As for the main indexes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.3% at 35,390) and S&P 500 (+0.06% at 4,559) eked out modest gains, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.1% to 14,250.
Still, all three indexes closed higher on the week, bringing their weekly win streaks to four.
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While most of today's headlines centered on the best Black Friday deals or projections of Black Friday sales (Adobe estimates $9.6 billion, up 5.7% year-over-year), there were several news items that held investors' attention. One was S&P Global's flash purchasing managers' index (PMI), which showed activity in the services sector hit a four-month high of 50.8 in November. Manufacturing activity, on the other hand, slumped to a three-month low of 49.9. Readings below 50 indicate contraction.
The data also showed that the private sector cut jobs for the first time since June 2020. "Job shedding has spread beyond the manufacturing sector, as services firms signaled a renewed drop in staff in November as cost savings were sought," said Sian Jones, principal economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, in the press release.
iRobot stock pops on Amazon news
Meanwhile, in single-stock news, iRobot (IRBT) stock surged 39.1% after a Reuters report indicated European Union antitrust authorities are prepared to approve Amazon.com's (AMZN, +0.02%) acquisition of the Roomba maker.
The deal was first announced in August 2022, when Amazon agreed to buy iRobot for $1.7 billion, although that purchase price was lowered by 15% in July 2023 to account for "the incurrence of iRobot's new debt," according to a press release.
Salesforce earnings, inflation data on deck
Next week will bring a jam-packed end to November. For one, a relatively busy earnings calendar features the likes of dollar-store chain Dollar Tree (DLTR, +1.5%) and Dow Jones stock Salesforce (CRM, +0.2%).
Additionally, speeches from a number of Federal Reserve officials are sprinkled throughout the week, while the Fed's preferred measure of inflation – the personal consumption and expenditures (PCE) index – will be released Thursday morning.
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