Closing Bell: Holiday Tape Grinds Higher; Retail in Focus, Cut Odds Stay Firm

Key Points

• Light-volume, half-day grind up: On the Black Friday early close (1 p.m. ET), U.S. stocks inched higher. Closing performance today: S&P 500 +0.54%, Nasdaq +0.65%, Dow +0.61%. With breadth modestly positive despite lingering AI-chip softness
• Leaders: Communication Services (helped by mega-cap internet strength) and Energy showed the best breadth on the day.
• Laggard: Health Care was the only S&P 500 sector in the red by the close.
• Rates, dollar & vol: The 10-year Treasury hovered near ~4.0%, while the dollar stayed heavy on growing December cut expectations; VIX eased to the ~17–18 zone, consistent with a calmer, holiday-thinned tape.
• Micro tone: Retail headlines and Black Friday footfall/online-sales chatter set the tone; semis were mixed after a brisk week of AI-related rerating.

Market Recap

A classic post-Thanksgiving session: rotation without drama. Communication Services and select defensives helped offset chip wobble, keeping the S&P green on thin volume. Holiday retail narratives (and steady Fed rate cut odds) supported risk appetite, but the tape avoided any chase given the 1 p.m. close.

Oracle (ORCL): Multiple outlets report Oracle and Vantage Data Centers are in talks with a bank group for roughly $38B in new debt to fund additional AI data-center capacity (reportedly linked to expanding OpenAI compute). If finalized, it would underscore Oracle’s capex-heavy cloud/AI push via partner-structured financing and add to prior Oracle-linked buildouts flagged in Texas, Wisconsin, and New Mexico.

Economic Data

Monday, Dec 1 (ET)

10:00 a.m. — ISM Manufacturing PMI (Nov): First high-quality read of December’s macro week; new orders, prices paid, and employment sub-indices in focus.

10:00 a.m. — Construction Spending (Oct): Private residential vs. manufacturing build-out

Notable Earnings

Monday, Dec 1 (ET)

Pre-market: CRDO (Credo Technology).

Post-market: MDB (MongoDB)