The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rose to fresh records on Friday after November jobs data came in slightly better than expected, but not so hot as to deter the Federal Reserve from cutting rates again later this month.

The broad market S&P 500 climbed 0.25% to 6,090.27. Tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.81% to 19,859.77, bolstered by gains in Tesla, Meta Platforms and Amazon. Both indexes touched new all-time highs during the session and closed at records. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 123.19 points, or 0.28%, to close at 44,642.52.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq went on to their third straight positive week as well, rising 0.96% and 3.34%, respectively. The Dow slipped 0.6% during the period.

The November labor report, released Friday morning, revealed that nonfarm payrolls increased by 227,000 last month, above the Dow Jones estimate of 214,000 and marking a huge hike from October's upwardly revised gain of 36,000. The unemployment rate nudged up to 4.2%, as expected.

Following the not-too-hot, not-too-cold unemployment data, fed funds futures trading data reflected an 85% likelihood of another rate cut in two weeks to 85%, according to the CME Group's FedWatch Tool.

"You're seeing a labor market that is not weak but is definitely softening, and that is more than anything else what is giving traders more confidence in the 25 basis-point rate cut here at the upcoming meeting," said Luke O'Neill, portfolio manager at Catalyst Funds.

"It's not gangbusters, but we're doing reasonably solid from an economic perspective and yet there is enough of a softening on the labor side to give plenty of air cover for the Fed to lower rates here," he said.

Given the continued strength of the U.S. economy, Fed Chair Jerome Powell has previously said that policymakers do not need to be "in a hurry to lower rates."

S&P 500 scores fresh record close

The S&P 500 scored a new closing high on Friday.

The broad market index rose 0.25% to finish at 6,090.27. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose even higher at 0.81% to end at 19,859.77. By contrast, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 123.19 points, or 0.28%, to settle at 44,642.52.

— Sean Conlon

Black Friday shopping significantly shifted online this year, according to Bank of America

Consumers significantly shifted toward online shopping this Black Friday season, according to Bank of America.

"Online retail spending (card not present) in the week ending Nov 30 was up 7.9% relative to the week ending the day after Black Friday in 2023," wrote economist Aditya Bhave in a Thursday note. "But brick & mortar retail was down 0.3%, even though there were gains in nearly every spending category."

As a caveat, Bhave added that Thanksgiving fell five days later in 2024 versus 2023, meaning the shopping strength could partially be due to consumers spending more over a shorter holiday shopping season.

— Lisa Kailai Han

High level of consumers plan to buy a car in next 12 months, according to Bank of America

Bank of America's December consumer survey revealed that consumer expectations to buy new vehicles remained high.

"New Vehicle next 12-month spending expectations maintained its heightened level from last month with 43% of respondents expecting to buy vs. 41% last year," analyst Robert Ohmes wrote in a Thursday note. The bank surveys around 1,000 U.S. respondents on a monthly basis regarding their spending expectations.

Plans to buy new appliances ticked up slightly, while plans to buy a new home decreased to 19% in December from 21% last month.

— Lisa Kailai Han

S&P 500 to hit 6,700 by year-end 2025, says HSBC

The S&P 500 is set for more gains in 2025, according to HSBC.

The firm said it expects the broad market index to hit 6,700 by the end of next year, which implies more than 10% upside from Thursday's close. The index has already risen more than 27% this year.

"While this year's equity rally was a mix of both earnings growth and a valuation re-rating (c50/50), we expect next year's equity returns to be focused on earnings growth as valuations are more stretched," analyst Nicole Inui told clients in a Friday note. "Overall, we expect earnings to grow by 9% incorporating a slower but still resilient US economy and some margin expansion."

Inui also said she expects the U.S. economy to slow over the course of the next year but remain resilient as inflation eases. That would enable the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by another 125 basis points, she forecast.

— Sean Conlon

Game on: Video game stocks surge

Stocks may be getting overplayed in a niche corner of the market: video games. The VanEck Video Gaming and eSports ETF (ESPO) is higher again today, on pace for a record 14th straight positive session. ESPO is also pacing for a fresh all-time high close after reaching an intraday high yesterday. ESPO is up 30% over the past three months compared to a 17% gain for the NASDAQ-100 during the same period.

Within the group, we're seeing strength from names such as Roblox (RBLX), which is up more than 18% this week and pacing for its seventh straight positive session. Unity Software (U) is up more than 14% on the week, though is pulling back a bit today. U is pacing to break a six-day win streak and has gained ground in 12 of the past 13 sessions. AppLovin (APP) is up more than 22% this week and a whopping 936% year to date. APP traded over $400 a share for the first time back to its initial public offering in April 2021.

Adding to the frothy signals, the relative strength index, or RSI, on the ESPO hit a fresh all-time high, just below 84. RSI is a popular technical indicator that measures the speed and magnitude of an asset's price movement. A reading above 70 is considered "overbought" and could indicate a pullback ahead.

— Nick Wells

South Korean won falls ahead of impeachment vote

The South Korean won weakened 0.6% against the dollar to trade at 1,423.97 on Friday. The fall came ahead of the National Assembly's vote on whether to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol following his short-lived emergency martial law declaration on Tuesday.

Despite the quick reversal of the martial law decree, the won has sharply declined against the greenback this week. Week to date, the won has dropped 2% versus the dollar.

— Hakyung Kim

UBS says 'a constructive stance is warranted on global equities' next year

Despite the threat of tariffs next year, investors should stay bullish on stocks in 2025, according to UBS.

"Heading into 2025, we think a constructive stance is warranted on global equities, and on U.S. stocks in particular," the bank wrote in a Friday report. "We note that historically U.S. equities tend to rally into presidential elections and after, with the average gain in the 150 trading days following an election averaging near 5% in data going back to 1928 for the S&P 500."

UBS added that the U.S. sectors it views as most attractive are the technology, utilities and financial sectors.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Consumer discretionary stocks lead S&P 500 higher this week

As of Friday afternoon, only three sectors in the S&P 500 were on track for a weekly gain.

Consumer discretionary stocks, up 5%, led the charge higher. Communication services and information technology stocks gained 4.1% and 3.4%, respectively.

On the other hand, the energy and utilities sectors were the index's laggards and down 4.3% and 3.9%, respectively.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Unemployment rate jumps for Black women in November

Black women experienced the most significant increase in unemployment last month, with the jobless rate rising to 6% from 4.9% in October.

That came as the overall unemployment rate ticked slightly higher to 4.2% and edged up to 3.4% from 3.3% for white women.

Read more on the demographic breakdown here.

— Samantha Subin

Stocks making the biggest moves midday

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading:

• Lululemon — The athleisure retailer soared more than 18% after topping Wall Street's estimates for the fiscal third quarter and issuing in-line guidance for the holiday season.
• Petco — Shares jumped more than 16.7% after the pet retailer reported a smaller-than-expected loss for the third quarter. Petco recorded a loss of 2 cents per share. Analysts had anticipated a loss of 4 cents per share, according to LSEG. Revenue also beat analysts' estimates.
• DocuSign — Shares of the e-signature company jumped more than 27% after DocuSign forecast fourth-quarter revenue between $758 million and $762 million, exceeding the consensus forecast of $756 million, according to LSEG. The company's third-quarter adjusted earnings and revenue also topped the Street's estimates.

The full list can be found here.

— Hakyung Kim

23 stocks in the S&P 500 reach new 52-week highs

During Friday's trading session, 23 stocks in the S&P 500 reached new 52-week highs.

These names included:

• Meta Platforms trading at all-time-high levels back to its initial public offering in May 2012
• Amazon.com trading at all-time-high levels since back to its IPO in May 1997
• Paycom trading at levels not seen since October 2023
• Apple Inc. trading at all-time-high levels back to its IPO in December 1980
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise trading at all-time-high levels back to its split from HPQ in October 2015
• International Business Machines trading at all-time highs back to when it began publicly trading on the New York Stock Exchange in January 1962
• ServiceNow trading at all-time-high levels back to its IPO in June 2012
• Palantir Technologies trading at all-time highs back to its IPO in September 2020
• Tesla trading at levels not seen since April 2022
• Clorox trading at levels not seen since May 2023
• Costco trading at all-time-high levels back to its IPO in December 1985

On the other hand, five stocks in the index traded at new 52-week lows: Apache, Devon Energy, Occidental Petroleum, Centene and Elevance Health.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Shares of DraftKings, FanDuel parent Flutter edge lower after FTC alleges anticompetitive conduct

Shares of sports betting stocks DraftKings and FanDuel parent Flutter Entertainment slid into the red on Friday, shedding about 0.9% and 0.1%, respectively.

That follows Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan's inquiry to the Department of Justice dated Thursday alleging possible unlawful anticompetitive conduct by both companies.

"We write to raise concerns regarding FanDuel's and DraftKing's conduct that may be violating Section 1 of the Sherman Act prohibition on coordination to obstruct or impair competition," Khan's letter reads. "Shortly after their failed merger, FanDuel and DraftKings expanded their dominance by leveraging their positions in fantasy sports to become online sports betting giants. FanDuel and DraftKings may be compounding these harms through anticompetitive conduct."

Supporting Khan, Utah Sen. Mike Lee tweeted on Friday that "we can't allow online gambling companies like @FanDuel & @DraftKings to violate anti-trust laws."

— Pia Singh

Cleveland Fed President Hammack sees slower pace of rate cuts

Cleveland Federal Reserve President Beth Hammack said Friday she expects to slow the pace of interest rate cuts ahead.

"To balance the need to maintain a modestly restrictive stance for monetary policy with the possibility that policy may not be far from neutral, I believe we are at or near the point where it makes sense to slow the pace of rate reductions," the central bank official said in remarks in her home district.

Noting persistent inflation and a labor market stronger than she had expected, "this situation calls for a slower pace of rate cuts relative to my September forecast."

Hammack has been a voting member this year on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee but will not vote in 2025.

— Jeff Cox

Bitcoin is not immune to a weakening economy, Citi says

Bitcoin may have passed the $100,000 threshold earlier this week, but even the digital asset cannot withstand a waning economy, according to Citi.

"We do not think Bitcoin or other digital assets will be immune from a weakening in the economy or sentiment, either from tariff uncertainty or U.S. labor markets," analyst Alex Saunders wrote in a Thursday note.

Saunders added that bitcoin could see its dominance fall going forward.

"Regulatory clarity may favor non-BTC tokens given existing ETF vehicles and BTC's classification as a 'commodity,'" he wrote.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Health care leads the way in job gains for November

November's better-than-expected jobs report showed that gains came from many different areas of the U.S. economy, with health care and social assistance claiming the top spot in job growth for another month. Here were the top three areas last month:

• Health care and social assistance: 72,300 jobs
• Leisure and hospitality: 53,000 jobs
• Government: 33,000 jobs

Read here for a full chart of job growth by category.

— Sean Conlon

Fatigue is beginning to appear in the market, according to Wolfe Research

Stocks may be rallying to record highs, but it is clear that investor enthusiasm is beginning to wane, according to Wolfe Research.

"We are seeing some fatigue set in beneath the surface, as the equal-weight S&P (RSP) has been slowly peeling off vs. its cap-weighted sibling over the past week, as select post-election winners such as Transports and Banks, have pulled back 5 and 5.5% respectively from their recent highs," wrote strategist Rob Ginsberg.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Sentiment, inflation outlook both rise in University of Michigan survey

Consumer sentiment improved in December even as the near-term outlook for inflation hit its highest level since the summertime, according to a University of Michigan survey on Friday.

The survey's consumer sentiment gauge rose to 74 from 71.8 in November, above the Dow Jones consensus outlook for 73. That represented a 3.1% monthly gain.

On inflation, the one-year outlook jumped to 2.9%, up 0.3 percentage points and the highest reading since July. The five-year outlook edged lower to 3.1%.

— Jeff Cox

Near-term volatility for semiconductor stocks could present a good buying opportunity, UBS says

Short-term headwinds could present a good opportunity for investors to buy into semiconductor names, according to UBS.

"Semiconductor stocks are likely to see volatility, especially in the event of disruption in the artificial intelligence supply chain. But the near-term headwinds appear to be manageable at this stage," the bank wrote in a Friday note. "We recommend investors to take advantage of near-term volatility to build up sufficient exposure to quality AI stocks."

— Lisa Kailai Han

Stocks rise following November labor report

Stocks rose on Friday morning after November's jobs report came in slightly better than investors had expected.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 86 points, or 0.2%. The S&P 500 also rose 0.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.3%.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Stocks making moves before the bell

Check out the stocks that are making big moves in the premarket:

• Lululemon – Shares popped 9% after the athletic apparel retailer topped Wall Street's estimates for the fiscal third quarter and shared in-line holiday guidance.
• Samsara – The stock moved more than 9% lower after the software company reported lukewarm guidance for the fourth quarter. For the period, Samsara expects earnings of 7 cents to 8 cents per share and revenue to come in between $334 million and $336 million. Analysts surveyed by LSEG were expecting 6 cents per share on revenue of $336 million. The company did beat earnings and revenue estimates for the third quarter, however.

Read here for the full list.

— Sean Conlon

AMC shares fall after company agrees to sell up to 50 million shares

Shares of AMC Entertainment slid more than 8% in the premarket after the movie theater chain revealed in a filing that it has agreed to sell up to 50 million shares.

This comes after the stock, along with shares of GameStop, rose about 6% in the previous session on the heels of meme stock personality "Roaring Kitty" posting a cryptic image of a computer on social media site X.

— Sean Conlon

November jobs report beats expectations

The U.S. economy added 227,000 jobs in November, marking a sharp rebound from the previous month. Economist polled by Dow Jones expected an increase of 214,000 jobs for the month. Jobs growth for October was revised to 36,000 from 12,000.

The unemployment rate came in at 4.2% for November, as was expected.

— Fred Imbert

Unified GOP control of U.S. government has historically benefited stocks, according to Barclays

Stocks have outperformed in historical instances of unified Republican party control over the U.S. government, according to Barclays.

"We find only 4 instances of unified GOP control of the US government prior to this year and since 1949," strategist Venu Krishna wrote in a Friday note. "Keeping the caveat of the limited sample set in mind, the S&P 500 has done well when the GOP has unified control of government: median returns are nearly +750bp higher compared to periods when Republicans control the White House but Congress is split."

The strategist added that cyclicals have especially outperformed, including the financials-, technology- and commodity-linked sectors.

— Lisa Kailai Han

BMO Capital Markets upgrades Weyerhaeuser

Potentially higher export duties on lumber could benefit Weyerhaeuser stock moving forward, according to BMO Capital Markets.

The firm upgraded the stock to outperform from market perform and reiterated a $38 per share price target. BMO's forecast implies about 23% upside from Thursday's $30.96 close.

"We believe that higher export duties on lumber coming from [Canada] will push prices higher and will benefit producers like WY with a greater mix of production in the US," analyst Ketan Mamtora said. "A strong rally in OSB prices provides further upside to near-term estimates."

— Brian Evans

China stocks gain ahead of key policy meeting amid broad declines in Asia markets

China stocks gained Friday ahead of a key policy meeting reportedly set for next week, while other Asia markets tracked Wall Street declines overnight.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up 1.5% in its final hour of trade, while mainland China's CSI 300 gained 1.31% to close at 3,973.14.

China's top leaders will kick off an annual economic planning meeting next week, where the authorities will discuss economic targets and additional stimulus plans for 2025, according to reports.

Other Asia-Pacific markets fell Friday as investors assessed Japan's household spending data and India's downgrading of its gross domestic product growth forecast.

South Korea's Kospi fell 0.56% to end at 2,428.16, while the Kosdaq dropped 1.43% to 661.33 as investors monitor the country's political situation amid moves to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.77% to end the trading day at 39,091.17, while the Topix lost 0.55% to end at 2,727.22 after consumer spending data out of the country beat expectations.

On Friday, India kept its interest rate steady at 6.5% as it sought to tame inflation after it surged to a 14-month high in October. The benchmark Nifty 50 index was marginally higher.

— Dylan Butts

Investors can't decide if a weak or strong labor data is better for the rate outlook

Investors have a mixed outlook on Friday's jobs report, which is one of the remaining major events the market has left to digest before the Federal Reserve's Dec. 17-18 meeting.

John Flood, head of Americas equities sales trading for Goldman Sachs Global Banking & Markets, told CNBC earlier this week that he expects markets will rally on a softer report — saying a headline number in the 150,000 to 200,000 range is the "sweet spot" for stocks. But Goldman's official forecast reflects a 235,000 job increase in nonfarm payrolls, while Dow Jones has a consensus estimate of 214,000 jobs being added last month.

Read here in CNBC Pro for more on what traders are looking for.

— Sarah Min, Pia Singh

Ulta, Lululemon, software makers among stocks making biggest moves after Thursday's close

Check out the companies making headlines in after-hours trading:

• Ulta Beauty — The beauty retailer jumped 12% after posting beats on the top and bottom lines in the fiscal third quarter. Ulta reported earnings of $5.14 per share on revenue of $2.53 billion. That topped analysts' forecast for earnings of $4.54 per share and revenue of $2.50 billion, per LSEG. The company also lifted its full-year guidance.
• GitLab — The developer tools software maker jumped 6% after posting a significant earnings beat for the third quarter. GitLab reported adjusted earnings of 23 cents per share on revenue of $196 million, exceeding the LSEG consensus estimate of 16 cents per share on revenue of $188 million. The company also announced a new CEO, effective Thursday.
• Lululemon — The athletic apparel maker posted a quarterly beat, sending its stock more than 10% higher. Lululemon reported $2.87 per share in earnings on $2.40 billion in revenue, exceeding analysts' forecast of $2.69 per share in earnings on $2.36 billion in revenue.

For the full list, read here.

— Pia Singh

Futures open little changed on Thursday

Stock futures were little changed shortly after 6 p.m. ET on Thursday as investors turned to Friday's highly anticipated labor data release.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 20 points, or nearly 0.1%. S&P 500 futures edged slightly lower, while Nasdaq 100 futures shed about 0.1%.

— Pia Singh