US stocks closed at record highs on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rising 0.4% to close at a record high and the S&P 500 (^GSPC) gaining 0.6% to reach a record at the end of a holiday-shortened trading session.
Friday’s rally, which included a 0.9% jump from the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC), capped off a winning month for all three major indexes. It also marked the best post-Thanksgiving Friday session for the S&P 500 since 2012.
With Friday’s gains, the S&P 500, Dow, and small-cap Russell 2000 each finished off their best month in a year. For the S&P 500 overall, its gain through November its best year to date since 2013.
Ahead of Friday’s session, investors continued to weigh the likely fallout and impact on inflation from the president-elect’s vow to impose hefty new tariffs on top US trading partners Mexico, Canada, and China.
Hopes for a softening in that plan got a boost as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she’s confident that a tariff war can be averted after a phone call with Trump.
Bets on a slower path for Fed rate cuts have also not proved a deterrent to investor enthusiasm with just one month to go in what’s been one of the stronger years for the stock market this century.
Should the S&P 500 — up more than 25% this year through November — clinch another 20%+ annual gain, it would mark the first time since 1998-99 that the benchmark index rose 20% or more in consecutive years.
