US stock market opens Friday mixed

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - US stock market opened mixed on Friday.

The Dow Jones increased almost 94 points, or 0.27%, to 34,287 at 9:50 a.m. EDT (1450GMT).

The S&P 500, on the other hand, was almost flat at 4,026 with a point loss.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq shed 57 points, or 0.51%, to 11,227

The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq were closed on Thursday due to Thanksgiving, and they will end the session early on Friday at 1:00 p.m. EDT (1800GMT).

On Wednesday, investors had an optimistic view about the Federal Reserve's aggressive monetary tightening after minutes showed the central bank's officials discussed earlier this month that they are considering slowing the pace of rate hikes.

The VIX volatility index, also known as the fear index, rose 3.1% to 21.05. The 10-year US Treasury yield added 0.5% to 3.728%.

The dollar index gained 0.4% to 106.26, still around its highest in 20 years, while the euro lost 0.2% to $1.0384 against the greenback.

Precious metals were on the decline as gold lost 0.2% to $1,752 per ounce and silver fell 0.8% to $21.33.

Oil prices showed some gains. Global benchmark Brent crude was trading at $85.74 per barrel for an increase of 0.5%. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude was around $78.62, up 0.9%.