Retail shares end mixed amid Black Friday hype

Despite the traditional Black Friday hype, retail shares ended mixed Friday as investors reacted to early results on the first official day of the holiday shopping season.

With early sales data on Thanksgiving sales seeping out and shoppers venturing out in the wee hours Friday to snatch deals on flat-screen TVs, tablets, electronic gadgets and other deals, investors' initial reaction was to push retail shares up. But they were not buying all retail stocks with reckless abandon, suggesting that they are not betting on a record-breaking sales year.

STOCKS FRIDAY: How markets are doing

Heading into the shopping season, the National Retail Federation was expecting sales to be up 3.9%, v. 3.4% a year ago. Early reports from Wal-Mart, Amazon.com and other retailers pointed to heavy traffic as shoppers sought out the perfect deal. Early indications point to strong online sales, with Thanksgiving sales up 19.7% over last year, according to IBM Digital Analytics.

If the gains today don't seem earth-shattering, consider that the consumer discretionary sector in the Standard & Poor's 500 was up nearly 38% heading into today's trading session, far exceeding the overall index gain of 26.7%.

Here are how some of the nation's most high-profile retail stocks fared for the day (with the markets' abbreviated session ending at 1 p.m. ET Friday):

• Wal-Mart. The world's biggest retailer, which opened at 6 p.m. on Turkey Day, closed up 0.1% to $81.01.

• Target. The popular retailer, which opened at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, slipped 0.75% to $63.93.

• Macy's. The department store giant, which hosted the popular Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, ended down 0.5% to $53.26. Its struggling competitor J.C. Penney, the worst performing stock in the S&P 500 heading into Friday with a drop of 48.9%, saw shares jump 1.1% to $10.19.

• Amazon.com, the online retail giant, jumped 1.8% to $393.62. And eBay, another online behemoth, saw its shares spring up 2.5% to $50.52.!

• Tiffany's, the luxury retailer, finished up 1.1% to $89.14.

• Home Depot, the home-improvement retailer, lost 0.8% to $79.18. And competitor Lowe's fell 0.9% to $47.48.

One caveat: history shows that retail shares peak around Thanksgiving and suffer in the final month of the year.

Follow Adam Shell on Twitter: @adamshell.