Things were quiet in the stock market on Black Friday, as many investors took the day off as part of their Thanksgiving holiday. The Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) was down about half a percent about halfway through the holiday-shortened trading session, underperforming other indexes.
There was also relatively little company-specific news among U.S. stocks, as most businesses didn't choose to try to report financial results or make major announcements during the holiday break. However, investors in Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI) got their first chance to react to reports that surfaced just before Thanksgiving Day suggesting that the federal government might take a closer look at the proposal from Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) to acquire the video game maker .
Shares of Activision Blizzard were down more than 4% on Friday, putting it among the worst performers in the Nasdaq-100 index for the day. The move lower came following a report that Activision and Microsoft might have to face litigation concerning their proposed merger , made back in January.
For further details see:
Is the Activision-Microsoft Deal Really in Danger?