US stocks rose on Friday. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 each gained 0.2%, while the Dow added 124 points, or 0.3%. This came even though a data-centre issue briefly halted futures and options trading at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
The outage happened during a low-volume, post-Thanksgiving session. A cooling problem at a CyrusOne data centre caused trading in key futures, options, and foreign-exchange markets to stop temporarily. Equity trading continued in the premarket, but derivatives markets paused.
CME restored all markets later that morning. Stock futures and options fully reopened at 8:30 a.m. ET, with bonds and metals also back online. Services gradually returned, and trading resumed after about 90 minutes for some European platforms.
Friday was also the last trading day of November. Tech stock pullbacks weighed on indices. The Dow and S&P 500 were set to end the month slightly lower, snapping six straight months of gains. The Nasdaq fell about 2% in November, ending a seven-month winning streak.
However, the week told a brighter story. Tech rebounded sharply, pushing the Dow up more than 2%, the S&P 500 roughly 3%, and the Nasdaq 4%. It was the strongest week for all three since June.
Market sentiment is now focused on expectations for a December rate cut. Traders see an 84% chance of a 25-basis-point reduction after recent dovish comments from Fed officials.
