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Market Recap
WEEK OF NOV. 24 THROUGH NOV. 28, 2025
The S&P 500 index rose 3.7% last week in a broad climb that helped the market benchmark end the trading month with a slight November gain. The major U.S. index closed Friday's session at 6,849.09, marking a 0.1% increase from where it started November. This marks a significant turnaround in a short time -- just a week prior the S&P 500 had been down 3.5% for November. The index is now up 16% this year.
The climb came in an abbreviated week as the US stock market was closed on Thursday and had a shortened session on Friday due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
Investors are growing increasingly hopeful for the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee to cut its benchmark interest rates, especially after a report on private payrolls released this week by ADP showed a preliminary average decrease of 13,500 jobs in the four weeks ending on Nov. 8.
US September jobs numbers, which were just released last week due to delays related to the government shutdown, showed higher-than-expected non-farm payrolls. However, the unemployment rate worsened to 4.4% in September from 4.3% in August; a 4.3% rate had been expected. October jobs numbers from the government have yet to be released.
All of the S&P 500's sectors rose last week. Communication services had the strongest gain, up 5.9%, followed by a 5.3% climb in consumer discretionary and a 4.3% rise in technology. The smallest gain was logged by energy, which edged up 1%.
Facebook parent Meta Platforms (META) had the largest percentage increase in communication services, jumping 9%. Google parent (GOOGL, GOOG) was also among the sector's top gainers, up slightly more than 6.8%. Meta is mulling using Google's tensor processing units in its data centres in 2027, and it may also rent those chips from Google's cloud unit in 2026, according to a report by The Information.
Tesla (TSLA) was the top performer in consumer discretionary, climbing 10%. The electric vehicle manufacturer opened its first all-in-one centre in Gurugram, India, offering sales, service, delivery, and charging facilities under one roof. Chief Executive Elon Musk also said the company plans to expand its fleet of robo-taxis in Austin, Texas in December.
Earnings reports are expected this week from companies including CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD) and Salesforce (CRM).
Economic data will include manufacturing data, automotive sales and private sector employment from ADP, all for November. The government is also expected to release September personal consumption expenditures, which had been delayed by the shutdown.
