EDITOR'S NOTE

It was a short week on Wall Street, but a strong one nonetheless.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 ended Friday’s session up more than 2% each for the week, and the Nasdaq Composite climbed nearly 3% over that time period. That marked the third weekly gain in four weeks for the major averages.

Those advances also drove the Dow and S&P 500 to record levels this week. The Dow broke above 30,000 for the first time earlier in the week, and the S&P 500 posted a record closing high. The small-cap Russell 2000, meanwhile, surged to all-time intraday and closing highs as traders piled into beaten-down value stocks at the expense of high-flying growth names.

“What we’re witnessing today, this week and this month, is a continuation in the rise of optimism,” said Mike Zigmont, head of trading and research at Harvest Volatility Management. “The environment for risk assets has been getting better and better” as drugmakers release more positive Covid-19 vaccine data and the risks on the political front ease.

Friday’s session also primed the market to notch a historic monthly performance. The Dow is up nearly 13% in November. If that gain holds, it will be the index’s biggest one-month advance since January 1987. The Russell 2000, meanwhile, was headed for its best month ever, rising 20%.

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