Stocks Rebound on Black Friday

Stocks rose in early trading on Friday, as millions of Americans hit shopping malls across the nation to take advantage of deals offered by retailers on the traditional starting day of the holiday-shopping season. The Dow Industrials lately gained 60.25 points, or 0.54%, to trade at 11,317.80. The S&P 500 rose 6.45 points, or 0.56%, to 1,168.24. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 10.43 points to trade at 2,470.51, up 0.42%.

Bargain hunters flocked to stores late Thursday and overnight Friday, searching for deals on big screen televisions, video games and toys while fretting about their own shaky economic well-being.

Italy paid a record 6.5 percent to borrow money over six months on Friday and its longer-term funding costs soared far above levels seen as sustainable for public finances, raising the pressure on Rome’s new emergency government.

AT&T said it would take a $4 billion charge in case its takeover of T-Mobile USA fails, a tacit recognition of the dwindling chances that the deal will get through U.S. regulators who say it would destroy jobs and curb competition.

Alibaba.com, China’s largest e-commerce firm, posted an 11.9 percent rise in quarterly net profit, its slowest growth in nearly two years, with the company raising concerns due to a weak trade outlook stemming from debt woes in Europe and the United States. Net profit for July-September rose to 409.7 million yuan ($63 million) from 366.1 million a year earlier, below an average forecast of 432.23 million from three analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Revenue grew 10.6 percent to 1.6 billion yuan and revenue from its international marketplace rose 11.8 percent to 947.5 million.