US stocks were mixed on Friday amid a low volume day of trading following the Thanksgiving holiday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) moved up about 0.1%, or about 40 points, while the benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) was little changed after the market’s closure on Thursday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite (^IXIC) lagged, falling about 0.2%.
Eyes will be on retailers as Black Friday kicks off the holiday shopping season, after big-box chains such as Target (TGT) and Walmart (WMT) warned penny-pinching consumers are spending cautiously. Retailers are going earlier and longer on holiday promotions as shoppers turn picky.
Meanwhile, discord at OPEC+ kept a lid on crude prices after the group of oil-producing countries said it will hold its next meeting online. The meeting to discuss output was delayed due to a dispute between Saudi Arabia and African members over quotas, Bloomberg reported.
Brent crude futures were broadly flat just above $81 per barrel, after falling 1.3% in the last two sessions. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down around 1% at just above $76 a barrel, after the Thanksgiving break in trading.
Nvidia’s (NVDA) stock was in focus after Reuters reported the company has pushed back the launch in China of an AI chip designed to comply with US export curbs. In its earnings this week, Nvidia noted the new US restrictions would drag on its results. Shares of the chipmaker teetered on both sides of the flat line on Friday.
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