* Concerns ease about size of Dubai's financial problems
* Black Friday spending down from year ago
* Amazon shares hit record high
* Dow up 0.3 pct, S&P up 0.4 pct, Nasdaq up 0.3 pct
(Updates to close)
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, Nov 30 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Monday,
helping the Dow post its fifth straight monthly gain, on hopes
that possible fallout from Dubai's debt woes will be
contained.
Shortly before the market closed, Dubai's largest company
said its planned restructuring of some units involved $26
billion in debt, easing some concerns about the size of Dubai's
financial problems.
An index of bank stocks <.BKX> rose more than 3 percent as
investors bet bank exposure to Dubai's debt problems would be
limited.
"It appears the market is coming to the conclusion that
Dubai is a small, localized event," said Charles Lieberman,
chief investment officer of Advisors Capital Management, LLC in
Paramus, New Jersey.
Retail shares limited the advance as investors worried that
the holiday shopping season might have gotten off to a tepid
start. Black Friday data suggested weak sales during retailers'
most imporant sales period and underscored concerns about the
economy.
Black Friday, or the Friday after the U.S. Thanksgiving Day
holiday, is seen as the start of the U.S. holiday shopping
period and buyers typically flood the stores that day searching
for bargains.
The Dow Jones industrial average <> rose 34.92 points,
or 0.34 percent, to end at 10,344.84. The Standard & Poor's 500
Index <.SPX> was up 4.14 points, or 0.38 percent, at 1,095.63.
The Nasdaq Composite Index <> was up 6.16 points, or 0.29
percent, at 2,144.60.
The Dow Jones industrial average posted its fifth-straight
month of gains, while both the Dow and the S&P 500 had their
largest monthly percentage advances since July.
For the month of November, the blue-chip Dow average rose
6.5 percent, while the S&P 500 gained 5.7 percent and the
Nasdasq added 4.9 percent.
Bucking the retail share trend on Monday, online retailers'
shares rose after analytics firm comScore said that online
spending was the highest it had ever been on Black Friday, with
Cyber Monday spending expected to be even stronger.
Amazon.com Inc <AMZN.O> shares hit an all-time high of
$136.08 in intraday trading on Nasdaq on Monday after it said
its Kindle electronic book reader posted its best sales yet in
the month of November. [] At the close, the stock
was up 3.2 percent at $135.91.
Major U.S. department stores' stocks took a beating, with
Macy's <.M.N> down 3.9 percent at $16.31 and Saks Inc <SKS.N>
down 6.4 percent at $6.11, both in New York Stock Exchange
trading.
Earlier on Monday, and following last week's request from
Dubai for a standstill agreement on billions of dollars in
debt, its government said it will not take responsibility for
the debts of the Dubai World conglomerate.
(Additional reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Jan
Paschal)
((caroline.valetkevitch@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 223 6393;
Reuters Messaging:
caroline.valetkevitch.reuters.com@reuters.net))
