US stocks rally on Black Friday sales

US stocks rallied Friday on signs that the holiday shopping season was off to a good start, with Walmart calling it the "best ever" Black Friday. Stocks built on strong opening gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 172.41 points (1.34 percent) at 13,009.30 in closing trade. The broad-market S&P 500 index advanced 18.03 (1.30 percent) to 1,409.06, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 40.30 (1.38 percent) to 2,966.85. There was no major economic data on the holiday-shortened session, which closed three hours earlier than usual at 1:00 pm (1800 GMT). US markets had been shut Thursday in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.