CNNMoney.com
Companies Economy International Corrections Pre-market Trading After-hours Trading Winners/Losers/Actives Bonds Currencies Commodities World Markets Money Magazine Real Estate Taxes Jobs Ask the Expert Money 101 Autos Mutual Funds The Help Desk Loan Center Best Places to Live Ask the Expert Ultimate Guide to Retirement Retirement Calculators Best Funds Ask the Mole Best Places to Retire Big Tech Blog Techland Blog Sectors and Stocks Fortune 500 Techs Tech Talk 100 Best Places to Launch Ultimate Resource Guide Small Biz Makeovers FSB 100 Ask & Answer Fortune 500 Technology Investing Management C-Suite Rankings Main Create Portfolio Edit Portfolio Create Alerts Edit Alerts
TRADING
CENTER
SPECIAL REPORT

Stocks cheerful at open

Trading expected to be light Friday as weakness in the retail sector draws attention.

EMAIL  |   PRINT  |   SHARE  |   RSS
 
google my aol my msn my yahoo! netvibes
Paste this link into your favorite RSS desktop reader
See all CNNMoney.com RSS FEEDS (close)
By CNNMoney.com staff

Describe your online shopping habits this holiday season:
  • I’m spending more than last year
  • I’m spending less than last year
  • I never shop online
  • I’m not spending anything this year

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks opened higher Friday morning as a smattering of investors returned from the holiday to confront grim retail sales figures.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) was up 0.5% shortly after the opening bell. The Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) index advanced 0.5% and the Nasdaq composite (COMP) was 0.2% higher.

U.S. markets were closed Thursday, but will remain open for a full day of trading. Activity was expected to be limited as many market participants take an extended break.

Stocks rose moderately Wednesday in a thinly traded session before the holiday after a rebound in bank stocks and shares of automaker General Motors (GM, Fortune 500), which has been hammered over the past several weeks.

Asian stocks ended mixed, with Tokyo's Nikkei index up 1.6%. Some of the region's markets were closed for an extended holiday, as were European markets.

Poor economic data have haunted the holiday week, with jobless claims rising to a 26-year high and personal spending declining. There are no major economic reports on tap Friday.

Holiday sales: The first post-Christmas report on the holiday shopping period (Nov. 1 to Dec. 24) was not promising, with a report from MasterCard Worldwide unit SpendingPulse showing sales excluding gasoline down as much as 4% compared to last year.

The report called the 2008 "one of the most challenging holiday shopping seasons in decades." The weak national economy was primarily to blame, with some bad weather throughout the nation during the final week adding to the disappointment.

SpendingPulse said the apparel, electronics and luxury sectors were especially hard-hit this season.

Other markets: The dollar fell versus the euro and the yen, and U.S. crude oil for February delivery was up 50 cents to $35.85 a barrel in New York.

COMEX gold for February delivery was up 70 cents to $848.70 an ounce.

Gasoline prices fell overnight to a national average of $1.642 from $1.648 a gallon, according to a survey of credit-card swipes released Friday by motorist group AAA.

All news is bad news in real estate right now. Have you recently bought a house anyway? Send your story and photos to realstories@cnnmoney.com and you could be featured in an upcoming article.  To top of page

Features
Markets Last Change
Dow Jones 8,146.52 -36.65 / -0.45%
Nasdaq 1,756.03 3.48 / 0.20%
S&P 500 879.13 -3.55 / -0.40%
10-year Bond 98 16/32 Yield: 3.30%
U.S.Dollar 1 euro = $1.396 0.002
July 10, 2009 4:03 PM ET
CompanyPrice% Change
General Motors Corp 1.16 37.99%
American Intl Group Inc 11.80 24.47%
CIT Group Inc 1.55 -16.66%
YRC Worldwide Inc 1.31 -12.08%
Jul 10 3:56pm ET †
More Galleries
The 10 dumbest iPhone apps The iPhone App Store launched a year ago with 500 applications. Today it has more than 55,000. Some are useful - many are plain stupid. With help from Krapps.com's Alex Miro, we've picked out some of the dumbest. More
New GM's new cars GM is launching a slate of new products. Can they give a lift to the auto giant as it enters a new era? More
Barbie gets a makeover As Barbie celebrates her 50th anniversary, middle age may be her time to shine (again). More

© 2009 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2009 BigCharts.com Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
Intraday data provided by Interactive Data Real-Time Services and subject to the Terms of Use.
Intraday data is at least 20-minutes delayed. All times are ET.
Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data.
Fundamental data provided by Morningstar, Inc..
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC.