US equity indexes edged higher this week with traders on Friday cashing in on gains from earlier in 2024 rather than extending the traditional "Santa Claus rally" that typically runs between Dec. 24 through Jan. 3.

* The S&P 500 ended at 5,970.84 versus 5,930.85 a week earlier, and the Nasdaq Composite closed at 19,722.03 compared with 19,572.60 a week prior. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished Friday at 42,992.21, compared with 42,840.26 last week. All three market gauges fell at least 0.8% on Friday, led lower by tech stocks.

* Mastercard's (MA) SpendingPulse report on Thursday showed US retail sales grew 3.8% over year-ago levels between Nov. 1 and Dec. 24, beating a 3.1% increase during the 2023 holiday season and topping forecasts expecting 3.2% growth. The final five days of holiday shopping this year accounted for 10% of sales, the credit card company said.

* First-time applications for unemployment insurance declined last week, with initial claims falling by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 219,000 during the seven days ended Dec. 21, missing forecasts in a Bloomberg-compiled survey of analysts looking for 223,000 applications. Continuing claims increased by 46,000 to reach 1.91 million during the week ended Dec. 14, touching their highest level since Nov. 13, 2021, government data showed.

* US same-store sales last week rose 5.9% year over year, compared with a 4.8% increase the prior week, retail analysts Redbook reported on Tuesday. Rising demand for winter apparel due to colder weather across much of the US last week likely contributed to the higher sales, Redbook said.

* American Airlines (AAL) flights were temporarily grounded Tuesday morning after the carrier said a vendor technology issue caused an outage with its flight operating system. The Federal Aviation Administration lifted its nationwide ground stop an hour later although nearly two-thirds of 3,900 domestic and international flights were delayed on Tuesday.