The stock market had a largely uneventful session a day before the Thanksgiving holiday, but recently renewed hopes of a December rate cut left stocks with room to run, sending the major averages higher despite a lack of intraday catalysts. The S&P 500 (+0.7%), Nasdaq Composite (+0.8%), and DJIA (+0.7%) finished a touch off of session highs, moving the S&P 500 and DJIA within 0.5% of their unchanged month-to-date levels. 

Stocks advanced in broad fashion, much like recent sessions, but added support came from strong leadership in the top-weighted information technology sector (+1.6%).

The sector's chipmaker components rebounded from some weakness yesterday that followed reports that Alphabet (GOOG 320.28, -3.36, -1.04%) is looking to challenge NVIDIA (NVDA 180.26, +2.44, +1.37%) in the AI chip space. NVDA brushed off the report yesterday, claiming their GPUs remain "a generation ahead" of the competition. 

NVIDIA reclaimed about half of yesterday's retreat, and the PHLX Semiconductor Index posted a solid 2.8% gain. 

Elsewhere in the technology sector, Dell (DELL 133.26, +7.34, +5.83%) was one of the top-performing S&P 500 names after posting its widest earnings beat in three quarters. 

Nine total S&P 500 sectors finished the session with gains amid another day of strong participation, with advancers outpacing decliners by a roughly 5-to-2 ratio on the NYSE and a roughly 5-to-3 clip on the Nasdaq. 

Only the communication services sector (-0.5%), which faced some profit-taking in Alphabet, and the health care sector (-0.3%), which has been on a nearly double-digit run this month, closed lower. 

Outside of the S&P 500, the Russell 2000 (+0.9%) and S&P Mid Cap 400 (+0.7%) captured similar gains to that of their larger counterparts.

Ultimately, today's action furthered the market's rebound efforts from what has up until recently been a lackluster month. Elevated rate cut expectations continue to push stocks forward in broad fashion, while solid performances across tech, and in particular, chipmaker names, give some credence to the notion that the AI trade may be recovering from some recent weakness.

The market will be closed tomorrow in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday, and Friday's session will be abbreviated, with the market closing at 1:00 PM ET.

U.S. Treasuries had a mixed showing ahead of tomorrow's Thanksgiving closure. The 2-year note yield settled up two basis points to 3.48%, and the 10-year note yield finished unchanged at 4.00%. 

Reviewing today's data:

• Initial jobless claims for the week ending November 22 decreased by 6,000 to 216,000 (Briefing.com consensus: 225,000). That is the lowest level of initial claims since April. Continuing jobless claims for the week ending November 15 increased by 7,000 to 1.960 million.
  • The key takeaway from the report is that initial claims filings are nowhere close to a recession-type level and continue to reflect a generally low-firing environment.
• Durable goods orders increased 0.5% month-over-month in September (Briefing.com consensus: 0.3%) following an upwardly revised 3.0% increase (from 2.9%) in August. Excluding transportation, durable goods orders rose 0.6% (Briefing.com consensus: 0.2%) following an upwardly revised 0.5% increase (from 0.4%) in August.
  • The key takeaway from the report is that business spending, viewed through the lens of nondefense capital goods orders excluding aircraft (+0.9%), showed no signs of slowing, keeping pace with the 0.9% increase seen in August and exceeding the 0.7% growth rate in July.
• The November Chicago PMI retracted to 36.3 (Briefing.com consensus 44.5) from a prior reading of 43.8.
• The MBA Mortgage Applications Index for the week ended November 22 increased 0.2%, from a prior decrease of 5.2%.
• The Fed's November Beige Book reported little overall change in activity since October. Two Districts saw modest softness while one saw modest growth. Consumer spending weakened but spending on higher-end items remained strong. There was no significant change in travel trends while Manufacturing increased slightly. There was some pressure on overall employment while prices rose moderately.