Wall Street closes out its best month in more than a year

Friday, December 1, 2023, Vol. 47, No. 49
The Associated Press

Stocks ended mostly higher on Wall Street and closed out November with big gains.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% Thursday. The index rose 8.9% in November, its biggest monthly gain in more than a year. The Dow jumped 520 points with an assist from Salesforce, which reported better-than-expected results and raised its outlook. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.2%.

The stock market has been mostly rising in recent weeks as investors hope the Federal Reserve is finally done raising interest rates. Those hopes got more support with a report showing that the Fed's preferred measure of inflation cooled last month.