US STOCKS-Wall St gains in thin trade, S&P up 12 pct for week

                                
 * S&P 500 has best week since at least 1980
                                
 * Dow marks five straight days of gains
                                
 * GE, financial sector help lift Dow and S&P
                                
 * But retailers slip on "Black Friday" jitters
                                
 * Dow up 1.2 pct, S&P up 1 pct, Nasdaq up 0.2 pct
                                
 * For up-to-the-minute market news, click on [STXNEWS/US]
 (Updates to close)
                                
 By Charles Mikolajczak
                                
 NEW YORK, Nov 28 (Reuters) - U.S stocks rose on Friday on
light volume in an abbreviated session, capping the best week
for the S&P 500 since at least 1980, as investors hoped
government and central bank moves unveiled this week would
boost the economy.
                                
 For the Dow industrials, Friday's close marked five
straight days of gains for the first time since November
2007.
                                
 Economic bellwethers such as General Electric <GE.N> and
financial stocks rallied and helped overshadow weakness in
retailers' shares, which slumped on concerns the weak economy
may hurt sales during the holiday shopping season.
                                
 Traders said financials were gaining strength after the
U.S. Federal Reserve outlined an $800 billion lending facility
to support the market for consumer debt securities. An S&P
index of financial stocks <.GSPF> rose 2.9 percent.
                                
 "A combination of thin holiday trading and today being the
last day of the month contributed to some buying in the last
30 minutes," said Michael James, senior trader at regional
investment bank Wedbush Morgan in Los Angeles.
                                
 Financial shares "rose on the bet that the rally this week
will be sustained. The important part for me was the
government plan to buy the mortgage-backed securities, which
dramatically drove down interest rates this week."
                                
 The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> shot up 102.43
points, or 1.17 percent, to end at 8,829.04. The Standard &
Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> advanced 8.56 points, or 0.96 percent,
to finish at 896.24. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> added
3.47 points, or 0.23 percent, to close at 1,535.57.
                                
  The U.S. stock market's session ended at 1 p.m. (1800
GMT) on Friday after the Thanksgiving holiday.
                                
 For the week, the Dow gained 9.7 percent, while the S&P
500 jumped 12 percent and the Nasdaq surged 10.9 percent.
                                
 November, though, was a bleak month for the U.S. stock
market, with the Dow losing 5.3 percent for November, the S&P
500 falling 7.5 percent, and the Nasdaq tumbling 10.8
percent.
                                
 In Friday's session, GE climbed 6.1 percent to $17.17 and
helped lift both the Dow and the S&P 500.
                                
 The Dow's top advancers included Caterpillar <CAT.N>, up
4.2 percent at $40.99, and Coca-Cola Co <KO.N>, up 3.3 percent
at $46.87.
                                
 In the financial sector, shares of Citigroup <C.N> jumped
17.6 percent to $8.29 on the New York Stock Exchange, while
American Express <AXP.N> gained 4.5 percent to $23.31, Bank of
America <BAC.N> climbed 5.3 percent to $16.25, and JPMorgan
Chase & Co <JPM.N> advanced 3.4 percent to $31.66.
                                
 Yahoo Inc <YHOO.O> shares gained 8.8 percent to $11.51 and
gave the Nasdaq one of its biggest lifts after billionaire
activist investor Carl Icahn disclosed that he has raised his
stake in the Internet company. For details, see
[ID:nN28433404]
                                
 But investors shunned retailers' shares on "Black Friday,"
 the annual kick-off to the holiday shopping season, as
consumers indicated they plan to spend less this year. For
details, see [ID:nN28442275] Wall Street and Main Street alike
are worried about how stores will fare this holiday season in
an economy troubled by increasing job losses and shaky
credit.
                                
  The long Thanksgiving holiday weekend will be a test of
how willing consumers are to spend as the country faces its
worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
                                
  Shares of Wal-Mart Stores Inc <WMT.N>, the world's
largest retailer and a Dow component, fell 1.4 percent to
$55.88 on the NYSE. The S&P's retail index <.RLX> slumped 1.6
percent.
                                
 Another weak spot was the energy sector, with Chevron
<CVX.N> down 1.2 percent at $79.01 as OPEC ministers convened
to deliberate further supply cuts to curb flagging global
demand. For details, see [nSP342706] U.S. crude oil for
January delivery <CLc1> dipped 1 cent to settle at $54.43 a
barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
                                
 Volume was light, as expected, on the Friday after
Thanksgiving, when the U.S. stock market was closed for the
holiday.
                                
 On the New York Stock Exchange, only about 786.97 million
shares changed hands, well below last year's estimated daily
average of 1.90 billion.
                                
Advancers outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by about 2 to 1
on both the NYSE and the Nasdaq.
 (Editing by Jan Paschal)