(CercleFinance.com) – American stock markets should open virtually unchanged on Friday for a shortened session the day after the Thanksgiving celebration.
Half an hour before the opening, futures contracts on the main New York indices advanced from 0% to 0.1%, suggesting a rather favorable start to the session.
Closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday, Wall Street will close three hours early this Friday, that is to say at 1:00 p.m. (New York time).
Volumes are therefore expected to be particularly limited, especially as many investors have taken a day off to benefit from a long weekend.
Consumer-related stocks could still benefit from ‘Black Friday’, the Friday following the Thanksgiving holiday and which kicks off the Christmas shopping period by offering major promotional operations.
The distribution sector in particular will focus the attention of investors, curious to know the state of health of consumption, which represents more than two thirds of American economic activity.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) predicts that 182 million Americans will shop over the Thanksgiving weekend, including Cyber Monday, up 15.7 million from last year.
This is an all-time high since the National Retail Federation began compiling this statistic in 2017.
The only indicator on today’s menu is the S&P Global ‘composite’ PMI index, which seems to have stabilized a little above the critical threshold of 50 points since September.
Over the week, currently reduced to three sessions, the Dow gained at this stage 0.9% and the Nasdaq gained around 1%.
Next week should be more lively on Wall Street with the release of several growth indicators, including household spending and the manufacturing ISM.
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