Nasdaq down as investors watch Black Friday sales, China infections

The Nasdaq closed lower on Friday with pressure from Apple Inc AAPL in a subdued trading session for Wall Street's main stock indexes.

Apple slipped on news of reduced iPhone shipments in November from a Foxconn plant in China as production was hit by COVID-related worker unrest.

The holiday-shortened trading session focused on retailers as Black Friday sales kicked off against the backdrop of stubbornly high inflation and cooling economic growth.

Shoppers were expected to turn out in record numbers to shop for Black Friday deals, but with inclement weather, crowds outside stores were thin on the traditionally busiest shopping day of the year.

U.S. retail stocks have become a barometer of consumer confidence as inflation bites. Year-to-date the S&P 500 retail index (.SPXRT) is down a little over 30%, while the S&P 500 is down 15% so far this year.

Shares of retailers Target Corp TGT, Macy's Inc M and Best Buy Co Inc BBY were mixed, while the S&P consumer discretionary index S5COND was slightly up.

"It's such a low volume trading day as most people are at home that I never count Friday after Thanksgiving," said Ed Cofrancesco, chief executive officer at International Assets Advisory, in Orlando.

Starting next week, the focus will be on retail sales, China's newest COVID outbreak and the Federal Reserve's next steps, he added.

Wall street's main indexes have rallied strongly since hitting their early October lows, with the S&P 500 SPX up more than 15% on a boost from a better-than-expected earnings season and more recently on hopes of less aggressive interest rates hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Expectations are now of a 75.8% chance that the Fed will increase its key benchmark rate by 50 basis points in December, with the rates seen peaking in June 2023. (FEDWATCH)

Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI rose 152.97 points, or 0.45%, to 34,347.03, the S&P 500 SPX lost 1.14 points, or 0.03%, to 4,026.12 and the Nasdaq Composite IXIC dropped 58.96 points, or 0.52%, to 11,226.36.

Weighing on Nasdaq, Activision Blizzard Inc (ATVI.O) fell on a media report that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission was likely to file an antitrust lawsuit to block Microsoft Corp's MSFT $69 billion takeover bid for the video game publisher.

U.S. stock markets closed at 1 p.m. ET on Friday, after being closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving.