US stocks end with moderate gains

Wall Street kept up a broad winning streak today, giving blue chip stocks their fifth straight advance as investors looked for clues about whether dire predictions for the holiday shopping season would prove accurate.

The stock market closed three hours early the day after Thanksgiving and locked in gains of 9.7 % for the week for the Dow Jones industrial average and 12% for the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index. The Nasdaq, which had moderate losses in recent sessions, still logged a weekly advance of 10.9%. It was the first time the Dow rose for five consecutive sessions since July 2007.