November turned out to be better than expected and analysts are confident that December will see a repeat of the mostly solid gains for equities, unlike a year ago when there was a massive sell-off in the final six weeks of the year that culminated in big falls and lows on Christmas Eve.
It was a quiet end to a week interrupted by the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday and the early, 1 pm-close on Friday for the holiday weekend.
Volumes were down sharply over the week when trading was happening as Americans celebrated their national holiday, the Black Friday shopping rush which was interrupted in much of the midwest, southwest and north by huge winter storms.- a
On Wall Street on Friday, the Dow fell 112.59 points, or 0.4%, to 28,051.41, the S&P 500 lost 12.65 points, or 0.40%, to 3,140.98 and the Nasdaq dropped 39.70 points, or 0.46%, to 8,665.47.
For the week, the Dow was up 0.6%, the Nasdaq gained 1.7%, and the S&P 500 rose 1%.
For the month, the S&P jumped 3.4%, the Dow was up 3.7%, and the Nasdaq added 4.5%. These were the biggest monthly gains for all three major equity benchmarks since June.
The Stoxx 600 index in Europe edged up 0.85% last week and 2% in November. In Asia, the Nikkei in Tokyo rose 0.8% last week and just under 2% for the month, and a 2% slide on Friday saw the Hang Seng in Hong Kong lose 0.9% for the week and 2% for the month.
The Shanghai market lost 0.5% for the week and 2.9% for the month as worries about the impact of Trump’s trade war remain at the forefront of investors’ thinking.
The MSCI world index climbed 2.3% this month, the third straight month of gains, helped in part by repeated suggestions that the world’s two biggest economies are moving toward a resolution.
