Stock futures rose before a technology outage halted trading; Major indices are looking to post their best week since June

Stock futures rose slightly before a technology outage halted trading on Black Friday, with major indexes poised to record their best week since June.

Futures tied to the tech-heavy Nasdaq, the S&P 500, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2%, 0.1% and 0.1%, respectively, before trading was halted on the CME Group (CME), bonds and commodities exchanges.

CME Group, whose shares were down about 1% before the bell, recently posted an alert at the top of its website saying “BrokerTec US Actives and BrokerTec EU are now open. Due to a cooling issue at CyrusOne data centers, our other markets are currently down.”

Before the pause, West Texas Intermediate crude futures, the US oil benchmark, rose 0.7% at $59.10 per barrel, and gold futures rose 0.5% to $4,220 per ounce.

Bond trading resumed, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell from Wednesday’s close to 3.99%.

Bitcoin, which traded in a narrow range at around $91,500, was unaffected, while the US dollar index, which tracks the dollar’s performance against a basket of foreign currencies, rose 0.1% at 99.74.

On Wednesday, the three major stock indices closed higher for the fourth straight session. Markets were closed yesterday for Thanksgiving, and the stock and bond markets will close early today, at 1 PM ET and 2 PM ET, respectively.

Indices are on track to achieve their largest weekly gains since June. The Nasdaq index rose by 4.2% during the first three sessions of the holiday-shortened week, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 and Dow Jones indexes rose by about 3.2% and 2.6%, respectively. However, today is the last trading day in November, and all three enter Friday with declines for the month, with the Nasdaq down 2.2%, the S&P 500 down 0.4%, and the Dow Jones down 0.3%.

In corporate news, shares of retailers Walmart (WMT), Target (TGT), Amazon (AMZN), and Macy’s (M) pointed higher in pre-market trading. The Friday after Thanksgiving is one of the busiest shopping days of the year, with many retailers promoting sales and specials.

Shares of Robinhood Markets (HOOD), which rose nearly 11% to lead the S&P 500 on Wednesday on news it was expanding its offerings in prediction markets, rose another 1% before the bell.

Jefferies Financial Group (JEF) stock fell 1% after Financial Times The SEC report was investigating what the company told investors about its exposure to the now-collapsed auto parts company First Brands.

After falling just over 1% on Wednesday, shares of Alphabet ( GOOGL ) resumed their climb after Google’s parent company recently unveiled its advanced Gemini 3 AI model, rising 1% before the bell. Alphabet entered trading Friday with a market cap of $3.87 trillion, having surpassed Microsoft’s (MSFT) value last week, and is on the cusp of joining Nvidia (NVDA) and Apple (AAPL) in the $4 trillion market cap club.