4:14pm: Equities rise, yields fall
The Dow closed Friday up 295 points, 0.8%, at 36,245, the Nasdaq Composite added 79 points, 0.6%, to 14,305 and the S&P 500 improved 27 points, 0.6%, to 4,595. The small-cap Russell 2000 index gained 52 points, 2.9%, to 1,861.
The S&P 500 closed at its highest level of 2023.
Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Friday said that it is “premature to conclude with confidence” that monetary policy is “sufficiently restrictive," essentially indicating that interest rate cuts aren't likely coming anytime soon.
The 10-year Treasury note also fell 13 basis points to 4.22%.
12:05pm: November was best month for stocks in over a year
US stocks were higher in noon trading even as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the market’s expectations for interest rate cuts next year are "premature".
At midday, the Dow gained 191 points to 36,142, while the S&P 500 added 20 points at 4,588 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 34 points to 14,261.
"The door to another hike is left open a crack, but it seems safe to say the bias now is neutral (and it won’t take much to tip that bias into accommodative territory)," Vital Knowledge founder Adam Crisafulli said.
Notable movers included shares of Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) Holding, which slipped 2% after Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) analysts downgraded the stock to 'Equal Weight' from 'Overweight', citing concerns over softness in its customer management revenue and cloud business due to a weak economic recovery in China.
9:40am: Markets mixed ahead of ISM, Powell
US stocks opened mixed as investors looked ahead to ISM manufacturing data and comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 25.45 points, 0.1%, at 35,976.34, the S&P 500 was down 9.33 points, 0.2%, at 4,558.47 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 67.22 points, 0.5%, at 14,159.00.
Powell is due to speak twice on Friday and investors will digesting his words carefully as the market continues to think interest rates will be cut sooner than originally thought.
Stocks on the move include Pfizer, down 6.7%, after it said it will focus on a once-daily formulation of its obesity pill after a mid-stage study on a twice-daily version showed that while it had a significant effect on weight reduction, side effects forced many participants to stop taking it.
Study participants achieved a weight reduction of as much as 13% over 32 weeks, Pfizer said, but high gastrointestinal side effects were reported.
It said the twice-daily formulation would not progress to late-stage trials.
Shares of media conglomerate Paramount Global climbed 1.3% following a report from the Wall Street Journal that the company has discussed bundling its streaming service with Apple.
7:00am: Mixed start expected on Wall Street
US markets are expected make steady progress when trading resumes on Friday ahead of manufacturing data and speeches from the chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell.
In pre-market trading, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.2%, while those for the S&P 500 were flat, and contracts for the Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.1%.
The Dow touched a new 2023 high on Thursday and capped off its best month in more than a year while the S&P and Nasdaq also posted bumper gains in November.
After a busy week of ‘Fedspeak’, Jerome Powell will have his say today. The chair of the US central bank is due to speak not once, but twice, including a fireside chat and a roundtable discussion later in the day. while the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Austan Goolsbee also speaks today.
Investors will also cast a careful eye over the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index which is expected to have increased to 47.6 in November from 46.7 in October, as the manufacturing sector continues to struggle amid higher interest rates.
Positive manufacturing data from China should also boost sentiment, after the sector posted an unexpected increase in activity according to the Caixin manufacturing PMI.