The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Technology, energy gains drive record stock rise
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks set more records in quiet post-holiday trading Friday as technology companies again did much of the heavy lifting. Energy companies rose with the price of oil.
Macy's and some of its retail counterparts rose after the department store's CEO said Black Friday sales were going well. Online titan Amazon made an even bigger gain. Oil prices and energy companies rose after Bloomberg reported that a group of key oil producers plans to extend production cuts until the end of 2018.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 5.34 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,602.42. The Dow Jones industrial average added 31.81 points, or 0.1 percent, to 23,557.99. The Nasdaq composite gained 21.80 points, or 0.3 percent, to 6,889.16. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies climbed 2.40 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,519.16.
The Dow finished slightly below its record high from Tuesday but the other major indexes closed at all-time highs. Trading ended early after the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday.
Experts are mostly predicting strong sales over the holiday shopping period because of increased consumer confidence and a very low unemployment rate. The National Retail Federation trade group expects sales to grow at least as fast as they did last year.
U.S. benchmark crude rose 93 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $58.95 a barrel in New York. Krosby said the Keystone oil pipeline spill earlier this month has also pushed U.S. oil prices higher by disrupting supplies.
Brent crude, used to price international oils, added 31 cents to $63.86 a barrel in London.
In other energy trading, wholesale gasoline added 2 cents to $1.79 a gallon. Heating oil rose 2 cents to $1.95 a gallon. Natural gas sank 16 cents, or 5.2 percent, to $2.81.