Investing.com -- U.S. stocks were mixed in a lightly traded post-Thanksgiving session, as retail stocks remained flat during the official beginning of the Holiday shopping season.
Stocks in the retail industry were relatively unchanged amid thin crowds on Thanksgiving and over the first few hours of Black Friday, as poor weather throughout the U.S. and a lack of competition kept many shoppers home. Stocks among a host of major retailers were down across the board, as consumer experts continued to analyze mall sales in comparison with online retailers for possible signs of divergence. While Wal-Mart Stores Inc (N:WMT), Best Buy Co Inc (N:BBY) and JC Penney Company Inc Holding (N:JCP) all closed on Friday mildly down, Amazon.com Inc (O:AMZN) also ended Friday's session slightly lower. The Dow Jones Industrial U.S. Retailer Index, closed at 834.05, down 1.27 or 0.15%.
Dragged down by sharp losses from Walt Disney Company (N:DIS), the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 14.90 or 0.08% to 17,798.49. Disney, the worst performer on the Dow, fell 3.54 or 2.98% to 115.13 after ESPN announced that it has lost three million subscribers so far in 2015. The sell-off in Disney spilled over to other media stocks on the NASDAQ Composite index, as Viacom B Inc (O:VIAB) and Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (O:FOX) ended the session among the day's worst performers. The NASDAQ still managed to close up by 11.39 or 0.22% at 5,127.53, amid gains in semiconductors and other tech stocks.
The S&P 500 Composite Index, meanwhile, gained 1.24 or 0.06% to 2,090.11, as seven of 10 sectors closed in the green. Stocks in the Telecommunications, Financials and Health Care sectors led, while stocks in the Energy, Consumer Services and Basic Materials industries lagged. The major indices remained near their highest closing level in three weeks.
The top performer on the Dow was Goldman Sachs Group Inc (N:GS), which rose 1.32 or 0.70% to 190.47. Shares in Goldman Sachs are virtually flat over the last 12 months. Disney finished just below Wal-Mart (N:WMT), which lost 0.35 or 0.58% to 60.67. The biggest gainer on the NASDAQ was NXP Semiconductors NV (O:NXPI), which jumped 3.88 or 4.59% to 88.36 in the wake of its settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday. NXP's divestiture of its power amplifier assets to a Chinese private equity firms paves the way for its $11.8 billion merger with Freescale Semiconductor Ltd (N:FSL). The worst performer was VimpelCom (O:VIP), which fell 0.18 or 5.00% to 3.42 on Friday.
The top performer on the S&P 500 was Kroger Company (N:KR), which gained 0.84 or 2.26% to 38.01. Kroger (N:KR) shares have gained approximately 5% over the last two weeks since its $800 million acquisition of Roundy's on Nov. 11. The merger expands the supermarket giant's footprint into Wisconsin and the Chicago-area. The worst performer was Southwestern Energy Company (N:SWN), which fell 0.68 or 7.22% to 8.74.
On the New York Stock Exchange, advancing issues outnumbered ones by a 1,810 to 1,187 margin.