Stock Market Has a Black Friday Tradition: Low Trading Volume

A pedestrian walks along Exchange Place near the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022. US stocks declined following midterm elections that failed to yield a Republican sweep. Treasuries and the dollar caught bids in a sign of deteriorating risk sentiment. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

Norah Mulinda, Bloomberg News

Nov 25, 2022

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(Bloomberg) -- The day after the US Thanksgiving holiday is traditionally among the lightest sessions of the year in the stock market, and Friday is no exception with volume on the S&P 500 Index 46% lighter than the average over the last 30 days.

Trading has been sluggish all week, steadily declining in the days preceding the holiday. Only 1.7 billion shares traded on Wednesday. But the shortened session after Thanksgiving is usually particularly light. In 2019, volume was less than one billion shares, a level already eclipsed in this Black Friday session.

The period from US Thanksgiving through New Year’s is usually the lightest of the year, with the days around Christmas usually having the lowest volume.

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