S&P 500, Dow Hit Hit Record Highs on Black Friday - TIME

S&P 500, Dow Hit Hit Record Highs on Black Friday Posted: 25 Nov 2016 06:45 AM PST (New York) — Key stock indexes on Wall Street swept to record intraday and closing highs on Black Friday thanks to gains in consumer staple and technology shares, while European stocks climbed and a stabilization in U.S. Treasury yields promoted investors to sell the dollar. The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes, as well as the small cap Russell 2000, hit record closing and intraday highs in thin trading, with the U.S. stock market closing at 1:00 p.m. ET (1700 GMT). For the week, the Dow and Nasdaq gained 1.5 percent, while the S&P 500 rose 1.4 percent. The S&P 500 consumer staples index’s 0.8 percent gain boosted shares on Black Friday, which traditionally kicks off the U.S. holiday shopping season. European stocks notched a third straight week of gains, even as a tumble in oil prices dragged commodities shares lower. Uncertainty over whether OPEC will agree to cut production at the group’s meeting next week weighed on crude prices. Expectations that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s promises of tax cuts, higher infrastructure spending and reduced regulation would benefit certain industries, including banking, industrials and healthcare, have underpinned multiple recent all-time highs in U.S. shares. “While many stocks have risen quite briskly, investors are looking for some forgotten names in the rally,” said Andre Bakhos, managing director at Janlyn Capital in Bernardsville, New Jersey. MSCI’s all-country world equity index was last up 1.86 points, or 0.45 percent, at 414.99. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 68.96 points, or 0.36 percent, at 19,152.14. The S&P 500 ended up 8.63 points, or 0.39 percent, at 2,213.35. The Nasdaq Composite closed up 18.24 points, or 0.34 percent, at 5,398.92. Europe’s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index closed up 0.29 percent at 1,351.66. While positive for stocks, Trump’s surprise victory in the Nov. 8 election has sent U.S. Treasury yields higher as investors bet his pro-growth and inflationary policies will erode the value of U.S. bonds. U.S. Treasuries were last steady after two-year yields hit a 6-1/2-year high of 1.17 percent overnight as investors evaluated how much further the selloff had to run. “There are a number of people that want to buy in but also don’t want to get whipped by the next 25-to-30 basis point selloff,” said Gennadiy Goldberg, an interest rate strategist at TD Securities in New York. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was last down 0.3 percent at 101.430 as investors took advantage of the pullback in U.S. bond yields to lock in gains after the dollar hit a nearly 14-year peak on Thursday. Despite Friday’s steep losses, U.S. and benchmark Brent crude oil prices eked out a second straight week of gains. Brent crude settled down $1.76, or 3.59 percent, at $47.24 a barrel. U.S. crude settled down $1.90, or 3.96 percent, at $46.06 a barrel. Gold prices tumbled to a 9-1/2 month low of $1,171.2100 an ounce, partly on expectations of a U.S. interest rate increase by the Federal Reserve next month. (Additional reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru, Jessica Resnick-Ault in Boston and Karen Brettell and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Meredith Mazzilli)

Black Friday Shoppers Hunt for Deals and Hit the Stores - TIME Business

Black Friday Shoppers Hunt for Deals and Hit the Stores

Posted: 25 Nov 2016 10:07 AM PST

NEW YORK (AP) — Shoppers were on the hunt for deals and were at the stores for entertainment Friday as malls opened for what is still one of the busiest days of the year, even as the start of the holiday season edges ever earlier.
Julie Singewald’s Black Friday started at 4 a.m. at a Twin Cities outlet mall. By 6 a.m., she and her two teenagers made it to the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. Singewald said she was merely the vehicle — “and sometimes the credit card” — as her daughters worked on their shopping lists.

Increasingly, the 44-year-old is doing more of her shopping online.
“I’m a point-and-click person,” she said. “If it were up to me, I would be in my pajamas and on my computer at home.”
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, used to launch the holiday season, but the competition to grab customers first is keen. Stores like Macy’s, Walmart, Target and more were open Thursday evening in what they hope will be a new holiday tradition as they try to fight off competition from online juggernaut Amazon.
Retailers have also been spreading deals out more throughout the week.
“It was a really good start. But I have never seen Black Friday morning so calm,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD Group, a market research firm, who visited malls on Long Island on Friday. He believes the weekend’s sales will likely rise from last year because shoppers did lots of buying, including pricey flat-screen TVs.
This weekend is crucial to set the tone for the holiday season. Around 137 million people plan to or are considering doing their shopping during the Thanksgiving weekend, according to a survey conducted for the National Retail Federation. That includes online and store shopping.
The NRF, the nation’s largest retail group, expects holiday sales to rise 3.6 percent for November and December, better than the 3 percent growth seen for those months last year. That excludes car sales, gas and restaurant receipts. But it includes online spending and other non-store sales such as catalog spending.
In Rhode Island, shoppers who arrived after sunrise at the Garden City outdoor shopping mall in Cranston said they were glad their state, along with Massachusetts and Maine, doesn’t let retailers open on Thanksgiving Day.
“I don’t like the idea of it,” said Lauren Glynn. “I feel bad for the people who have to work.”
She and her husband, who are restaurateurs, came to the Cranston mall for fun, to soak up the experience and maybe find a few deals, but they said they plan to do most of their gift shopping online and at locally owned shops where they live in Bristol, Rhode Island.
It’s at local shops, Sam Glynn said, where they’ll look for “cool knives and glassware, things that have meaning.”
In Virginia, Dana Sari says she prefers buying gifts from online catalogues and boutique retailers rather than larger corporations, which she says value her less as a customer. She’s finished all of her holiday shopping online, but she and her mother continued their decades-old tradition of spending Black Friday together. They arrived at the relatively quiet MacArthur Center mall in Norfolk shortly after 8 a.m. where each bought a coffee and sat near a Nordstrom.
“It’s not so much about the consumerism as it is the quality time with my mother during the holiday season,” said Sari, 43, a neuropsychologist who lives in Norfolk.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said in addition to Black Friday favorites like televisions and toys, shoppers were looking for drones, virtual reality products and hoverboards.
Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren tells The Associated Press that clothing sales have been good, with sportswear, dresses and even social occasion fashions doing well. But he’s hoping for some cold weather to help fuel more sales of winter items.
Leah Olson was at Mall of America Friday morning, following some Thanksgiving night trips to Target and a local mall. Olsen said she had done some online shopping, but preferred making in-person stops.
“I always like to walk, go to the mall,” said the Chanhassen, Minnesota resident. “I just like shopping.”
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Associated Press writers Kyle Potter in Bloomington, Minnesota, Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia, and Matt O’Brien in Cranston, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.