NEW YORK, New York - U.S. stocks ran into heavy weather in a shortened trading session on Friday, a day after Thanksgiving. Volume was the lowest for any trading day in the past three years.

The day began upbeat with indications that the Federal Reserve will slow its aggressive rate hiking program soon. The Dow Jones, at one point, hit its 16 August 2022 intraday high before pulling back.

"We are entering one of the seasonally bullish periods of the year and given the likelihood for a continued peak in inflation and dovish turn for the Fed soon ... we are on the lookout for another strong end-of-year rally," Ryan Detrick, chief markets strategist at the Carson Group told Reuters Friday.

The Dow Jones industrials did best, surging 152.97 points or 0.45 percent to close Friday at 34,347.03.

The Nasdaq Composite did worst, sliding 58.96 points or 0.52 percent to 11,226.36.

The Standard and Poor's 500 edged down 1.14 points or 0.03 percent to 4,026.12.

The U.S. dollar staged a mini-comeback but was waning towards the New York close. Nonetheless, the euro finished slightly lower at 1.0402 after hitting an earlier low of 1.0354. The British pound, which dropped to 1.2058 earlier in the day, recovered to be down marginally at 1.2084. The Japanese yen softened to 139.08.

The Canadian dollar edged down to 1.3378. The Australian dollar fell to 0.6746. The New Zealand dollar weakened to 0.6239.

On overseas equity markets, the FTSE 100 in London gained 0.27 percent Friday. The Dax in Germany was flat, edging up 0.01 percent. The Paris-based CAC 40 rose 0.08 percent.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 slid 100.06 points or 0.35 percent to 28,283.03.

The Australian All Ordinaries gained 15.40 points or 0.21 percent to 7,447.60.

In South Korea, the Kospi Composite fell 3.47 points or 0.14 percent to 2,437.86.

New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 climbed 60.85 points or 0.54 percent to 11,382.56.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng retreated 87.32 points orm0.49 percent to 17,573.58.

China's Shanghai Composite added 12.38 points or 0.40 percent to 3,101.69.