The US stock market will have a holiday-shortened trading week. The stock market in the US will be closed on Thanksgiving Day. The Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) will remain closed on Thursday, November 27, and close early on Friday, November 28. On Friday, November 28, the day after Thanksgiving, the United States of America celebrates Black Friday.
After regular trading on Wednesday, both the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange will be closed on Thursday. Markets will open on Friday, November 28, but close early at 1 p.m. ET. The U.S. bond market will also be closed on Thursday and is scheduled to close at 2 p.m. ET on Friday, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.
After the Thanksgiving holiday and the early closure of Black Friday, Wall Street will resume normal operations until late December. The next scheduled stock market closure is on Thursday, December 25, on account of Christmas. Markets are also set to close early at 1:00 p.m on Christmas Eve.
2025 Santa Claus rally
Since the 2024 Thanksgiving day, the S&P 500 has witnessed one big correction from mid-February to mid-April. Other than that, the index moved steadily higher and is up by 13.5% over the last one-year. From the lows of April 2025, the S&P 500 is up by 36%.
The three major events impacting stocks in 2025 have been Trump’s tariffs, multi-billion-dollar AI deals amongst big tech players and the uncertainty around the US Fed’s interest rate decisions.
After a 25bps rate cut in December 2024, the US Fed waited till September and followed up with a rate cut in October. The ‘Mag 7’ stocks have been the star performer, keeping the Nasdaq index trading around record levels.
2025 Santa Claus Rally
Soon, attention will turn to whether the 2025 Santa Claus rally will take place. The US Fed rate cut decision arrives on December 10 and markets are expecting another 25bps rate cut.
Historically, December has been a good month for stock market seasonals, with significant returns typically concentrated in the second half of the month, hence the Santa Claus Rally axiom.