Stocks inched higher on Friday in lackluster post-Thanksgiving trading, helped by steel producers amid concerns of a steel shortage and retailers as consumers piled into stores at the start of the holiday-shopping season. Wall Street was open for a shortened trading session, and many strategists and traders took the day off following Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday. Equity markets were closed on Thursday and shut early at 1 p.m. (1800 GMT) on Friday. Even for a shortened session, volume was extremely light, traders said. "It's a very lackluster day, and there's a holiday environment - activity is very low and there's no trend," said Scott Lynch, managing director of U.S. trading at CSFB. "Its a very quiet half day." The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 1.92 points, or 0.02 percent, at 10,522.23. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 0.89 point, or 0.08 percent, at 1,182.65. The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.57 point, or 0.03 percent, at 2,101.97. For the week, the Dow gained 0.6 percent, the S&P 500 rose 1.05 percent and Nasdaq was up 1.51 percent. --More 2229 Local Time 1929 GMT
