US stocks trade higher on the last trading day of November, futures resume trading after outages

US stocks opened with gains on the last trading day of November.The S&P 500 rose 0.2% and needs slightly bigger gains to avoid its first month of decline since April. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 138 points and the Nasdaq gained 0.3%.

Coinbase Global added 3.6% as Bitcoin rose above $92,000 after falling to around $81,000 last week. The world’s most popular cryptocurrency is still well below its all-time high of around $125,000, which was reached in early October.Most technology stocks posted gains, with Meta Platforms up 1.4% and Micron Technology up 2.8%. But Nvidia, the market’s most valuable stock, fell 1% and is heading for a double-digit loss for the month. Oracle, another high-flyer that struggled this month, fell 2.3%.

Wall Street will operate on a reduced schedule Friday after being closed for Thanksgiving. Stock trading closes at 1:00 PM ET.

Previously, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were halted for hours due to a technical problem on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. CME said the issue was related to an outage at a CyrusOne data center. After plunging earlier this month as investors worried that many of the tech stocks had been driven higher by the frenzy over artificial intelligence, shares have risen for four straight trading sessions on hopes the Federal Reserve will cut rates again at its meeting next month. Recent comments from Federal Reserve officials have given traders more confidence that the central bank will cut rates again at the meeting ending December 10. Traders are betting on a nearly 87% probability that the Fed will cut spending next month, according to data from CME Group.

The central bank, which has already cut rates twice this year in hopes of supporting a slowing labor market, is facing an increasingly difficult decision on interest rates as inflation rises and the labor market slows. A further cut in interest rates could support the economy as employment weakens, but could also fuel inflation. The latest round of corporate earnings reports were mostly positive, but economic data was mixed.

The minutes of the Fed’s most recent meeting in October show that there is likely to be deep division among policymakers over the Fed’s next move.

Government bond yields remained largely stable, with a ten-year yield of 4.01%.