US stocks rebounded from early losses to close mostly higher on Friday amid hopes that Congress members were making progress toward ending the government shutdown. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones closed 0.3% higher, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq closed near the flatline as AI giants remained under pressure. Senate Republicans rejected Democrats' offer to scale down shutdown demands, but lingering hopes of an incoming agreement improved risk sentiment before the closing bell. The suspension of operations and government data were evidenced by the deteriorating consumer confidence measured by the University of Michigan survey, which came out at the second-worst reading on record in November. Consumer defensive and energy companies led the gains, with Exxon Mobil, T-Mobile, and Coca-Cola adding more than 2%. In turn, concerns that valuations for AI companies have been stretched too far continued to pressure the tech sector, with Tesla dropping 4% while Meta and Oracle fell 2%.
India's BSE Sensex pared early losses to close marginally down at 83,216.3 on Friday, marking its lowest level since mid-October and the third straight day of declines. Relentless foreign outflows and global worries over tech valuations were offset by optimism over corporate earnings and potential progress in India–US trade talks. US President Trump said on Thursday that his talks with Indian Prime Minister Modi were going well and that he planned to visit the country soon. Tech stocks, FMCG consumer durable stocks were among the worst performers. Bharti Airtel led the losses, dropping 4.5% after Singtel sold a 0.8% stake in the telecom carrier valued at $1.2 billion. Other laggards included Tech Mahindra, Trent, Reliance Industries, HCL Tech, and Hindustan Unilever, with losses between 0.9% and nearly 2%. On the upside, Bajaj Finance, Tata Steel, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Bajaj Finserv posted the biggest gains, rising up to 1.7%. For the week, the index lost roughly
