US Stock Market Recap: 5th Day Of Gains For Both The Dow And S&P 500

The markets traded up on a shortened trading day Friday due to the Thanksgiving Holiday.  The Dow Jones (^DJI) traded up 1.17% or 102.43 to settle at 8,829.04 while the Nasdaq (^IXIC) traded up 0.23% or 3.47 to close at 1,535.57.  The S&P 500 (^GSPC) also managed to finish the day in positive territory up 0.96% or 8.56 ending the trading session at 896.24.  All three of the major U.S. averages traded up towards the end of the trading session after being in negative territory for some of the day.  This five trading day up streak for both the Dow Jones and S&P 500 was the first consecutive five day winning streak since July 2007.  This comes as a complete surprise as the futures indicated a weak market in response to a world-wide panic due to the terrorists attack in Mumbai, India.

This Friday was the shopping holiday in the United States known as “Black Friday.”  Retailers post massive sales and discounts in order to turn their bottom line “into the black” for the fiscal year.  Initial early morning reports were that spending was slightly below average, although more accurate figures will be released within the coming days.  Some shoppers at a Wal-Mart (WMT) in New York were so rabid that an employee of the retail giant unfortunately lost his life during a stampede minutes before the doors were schedule to open up to customers.

In other news the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, commonly referred to as O.P.E.C., met today in Cairo, Egypt.  The recent fall in crude oil prices from $147 to around the $50 to $55 range has worried many of the countries in O.P.E.C. and many analysts are predicting a cut in production in order to limit supply to raise the price of crude oil back to levels seen earlier this year.  O.P.E.C. met last month and cut their production quota by 1.5 million barrels a day, but most analysts believe that the countries combined actually took only around 60% of this amount offline.  The current consensus is for another production cut of at least 1 million barrels.

Barack Obama announced that he may delay his plans to raise the taxes from the current levels set by George W. Bush back in 2003.  He believe this move will help bring the economy back up to speed more quickly.  Many experts are questioning Obama’s theory on eventually raising taxes if he infact believes that the current tax levels will be most beneficial for the American economy and citizen.  The markets will anxiously await an answer when it comes to tax policy as it will dictate the actions of many firms for either the next four or eight years under the new President-Elect.

Disclosure: The mutual fund the author manages is long WMT.

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