MARKET SNAPSHOT: U.S. Stocks Rise On Black Friday To Post Strong Weekly Gains

By Nick Godt

U.S. stocks ended higher Friday, leaving the market with monthly losses but with large gains for a holiday-shortened week that saw investors increasingly confident that much of a dire economic outlook already has been priced in.

The market gained on so-called Black Friday, marking its fifth-straight session of gains, with grim prospects for retailers failing to dent optimism at the traditional start of the U.S. holiday-shopping season.

"With the market [having its] fifth day of gains in a row, there's a bit of confidence returning," said Peter Cardillo, market economist at Avalon Partners. "This market has discounted a lot of negative news."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) gained 102 points, or 1.2%, to 8,829, with 23 of its 30 components ending higher. While the blue-chip average fell 5.3% for the month of November, it jumped 9.2% over the past week.

"Even though it was abbreviated, this is one of the biggest gaining weeks in a long, long time," Cardillo added. With the market falling so far and so quickly over the past few months, "the picture has gotten technically strong here, which is another reason investors are coming in."

MARKET SNAPSHOT: U.S. Stocks Look To Further Recent Gains In December

By Nick Godt

Stocks will enter the month of December with a sense of optimism that much of the dismal environment for corporate profits has already been discounted by the market, even as upcoming reports, including the key jobs report on Friday, are expected to show the economic picture is still worsening.

Next week, "we'll have a slew of economic numbers, including what I expect to be a rise to 6.7% in unemployment in November," said Peter Cardillo, market economist at Avalon Partners.

However, "the market has already priced in another quarter or two of real bad economic news, and that things could start to stabilize in the second quarter" of next year, he said.

Dow's best 5-day gain ever