Trading Day: Fed Optimism, Thanksgiving Week   

Fed Optimism Drives Market Gains During Thanksgiving Week

By Alden Bentley

NEW ‌YORK (Reuters) -Making sense of the forces driving global markets

By Alden Bentley, Editor in Charge, Americas Finance and Markets

Jamie is enjoying some ‍well-deserved time ‌off, but the Reuters markets team will still keep you up to date on what animated markets today. I'd love to hear ⁠from you so please feel free to reach out at

Today's Key ‌Market Moves

* On Wall Street the benchmark S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaqwere up about 0.8% and 0.5%, respectively. The Dow was 1.4%higher * U.S. Treasury yields fell * The dollar fell against the euro and the Japanese yen * New York crude oil futures rose almost 1.5% * Gold bullion eased 0.15%

Today's Key Reads 

Wall Street advances as ⁠Federal Reserve rate cut bets gather momentum

Alphabet on pace to hit $4 trillion market value as AI gains momentum

US retail sales growth slows in September; energy prices boost producer inflation

US ​consumer confidence deteriorates in November

Good chance Trump may unveil Fed pick by Christmas, Bessent ‌says

Fed optimism, Thanksgiving week   

Wall Street gained conviction that plodding growth ⁠would cement a third Federal Reserve easing this year, keeping buyers in control for the third straight session.

Several economic indicators contributed to a bad-news-is-good-news scenario that helped convert an overnight pullback into another solid rally, even as Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday threatened to drain market liquidity ​and volume.

All three major stock indexes strengthened. The blue-chip Dow took the lead while sagging shares of artificial intelligence front-runner Nvidia limited the Nasdaq's advance even as Google parent Alphabet rose to a record high, closing in on becoming the fourth company to reach $4 trillion in market capitalization. Meta was the biggest boost to the S&P 500 after The Information reported it was in talks with Google to spend ​billions on ‍its chips for data centers.

U.S. retail sales increased ​a less-than-expected 0.2% in September, suggesting consumer fatigue amid higher prices due to tariffs going into the shutdown that delayed government reports for that month and the next. Meanwhile, labor market worries pushed down the Conference Board's consumer confidence index to 88.7 this month, the lowest level since April. The Labor Department also reported that its September Producer Price Index rebounded 0.3%, after a slight drop in August, due to higher energy and food costs. 

Following comments from three Fed officials since Friday, futures traders stepped up bets that the central bank would cut its ⁠fed funds target range another 25 basis points to 3.50% to 3.75% after its December 9-10 meeting, putting the probability at 76% -- not as certain as a couple of weeks ago, when they ​priced in near certainty, but more confident than during last week's shakeout. Treasury yields fell on the underwhelming data and prospects for still more monetary policy accommodation, which also weighed on the dollar.  

What could move markets tomorrow?

* US September Durable Goods Orders

Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is ‌committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

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(Reporting by Alden Bentley in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)