U.S. Stocks Trade in Shortened Black Friday Session as Consumer Confidence Slides

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U.S. stocks edged higher in a shortened Black Friday session, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 102.57 points (0.22%) to 47,529.7, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 87.77 points (0.38%) to 23,302.5 and the S&P 500 rose 16.92 points (0.25%) to 6,829.53 as of the 9:30 a.m. ET open. Small caps also firmed, with the Russell 2000 adding 0.39 points (0.16%) to 247.69. In commodities, crude oil (Jan ’26) traded at $58.92, up $0.27 (0.46%), and gold (Dec ’25) climbed to $4,221.30, a gain of $19.00 (0.45%). Bitcoin continued its recent surge, jumping 1.36% to $92,117.85, while market volatility ticked higher, with the CBOE VIX up 1.57% to 17.48.

Trading volumes were characteristically light, and electronic markets were still normalizing after an overnight disruption. According to the CME, a technical outage earlier Friday halted parts of the futures complex before operations resumed at 8:30 a.m. ET, while BrokerTec EU, BrokerTec US Actives and EBS had reopened earlier in the morning.

Black Friday Spending and Consumer Behavior

The shortened session coincided with Black Friday, long considered the unofficial start of the U.S. holiday shopping season. While Americans remain deal-hungry, the landscape of discounting is shifting, according to new research from WalletHub. The firm notes that 36% of Black Friday items will offer no savings versus pre-holiday prices, despite the perception of deep discounts. Its survey also finds that 85% of consumers plan to spend the same or less this holiday season compared with last year.

Cassandra Happe, an analyst at WalletHub, said, “WalletHub found that around 36% of Black Friday items offer no real savings for consumers compared to their usual prices, but the items that are on sale are an average of 24% off, with the highest markdown at 87%.”

Black Friday foot traffic and e-commerce figures will provide retailer data for investors that could confirm or change the understanding of consumer sentiment.

Consumer Confidence Weakens

Macro sentiment took a darker turn earlier this week after the Conference Board reported a sharp November slide in its Consumer Confidence Index®, which fell 6.8 points to 88.7, its lowest reading since April. The Present Situation Index dropped to 126.9, and the Expectations Index fell to 63.2, its tenth consecutive month below the recession-signaling threshold of 80.

Dana M. Peterson, Chief Economist at The Conference Board, noted, “Consumer confidence tumbled in November to its lowest level since April after moving sideways for several months… All five components of the overall index flagged or remained weak.”

The report highlighted increasing pessimism about business conditions, labor markets, future income prospects, and family financial situations. Inflation expectations remained elevated at a median 4.8%, while recession fears were mixed: fewer respondents saw a downturn as “very likely,” but more believed the U.S. economy was already in recession. Plans for major purchases, domestic travel, and discretionary services all softened.

Retailers and Markets Look Ahead

With only a half-day of trading and sparse corporate news, investors are largely focused on how holiday-shopping demand will shape fourth-quarter earnings. Analysts will parse weekend sales updates beginning late Friday and into Cyber Monday. The CME’s early-morning outage also injected a dose of caution into futures markets, though trading appears to be stable.

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