The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday, Nov. 29, edition that U.S. stocks ended higher in a truncated, post-holiday session on Friday. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe reports that the three major U.S. stock indexes made modest advances on the day, benchmark Treasury yields strengthened, and gold advanced. All three indexes advanced during the holiday-shortened week, on growing optimism that the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its December meeting. For the month, the S&P 500 and the Dow posted marginal gains. The Nasdaq, however, posted a 1.5-per-cent decline in November, as risk appetite was soured by simmering worries over inflated tech stock valuations. An outage at CME Group, the world's largest exchange operator, caused mayhem in financial markets as trading was frozen on its currency platform and futures, affecting foreign exchange, commodities, Treasuries and stocks. The issue was resolved with less than an hour to go before the U.S. market opened. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 289.30 points, or 0.61 per cent, to 47,716.42, the S&P 500 rose 36.48 points, or 0.54 per cent, to 6,849.09 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 151.00 points, or 0.65 per cent, to 23,365.69.