Wall Street Catches a Break

Updated from 1:05 p.m. EST

Stocks ended a light volume, holiday-shortened session with solid gains Friday, as retailers, financials and commodity stocks led the market higher.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 181.84 points, or 1.42%, to 12,980.88, and the S&P 500 was up 23.93 points, or 1.69%, at 1440.70. The Nasdaq Composite rose 34.45 points, or 1.34%, to 2596.60.

Markets were closed in the U.S. Thursday for Thanksgiving. The day after the break is typically one of the lowest-volume trading days of the year, and this year didn't disappoint. About 1.53 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, and advancers beat decliners by a 5-to-1 margin.

Volume on the Nasdaq was 783 million shares, with winners topping those that fell by 3 to 1.

Shoppers appeared to be out in droves to take advantage of big promotions at Wal-Mart (WMT Quote), Best Buy (BBY Quote), Target (TGT Quote) and Macy's (M Quote).

The S&P Retail Index climbed 2.8%. Among the best performing names, Circuit City (CC Quote) jumped 19.5%, Target was up 5.7%, Kohl's (KSS Quote) gained 2.4%, and Wal-Mart added 1.9%.

"This is partially a technical bounce as everyone sold off and went home early Wednesday," said Edgar Peters, chief investment officer with Pan Agora. "It's difficult, though, to read a lot into today's move because of low volume and the early close."