November 15, 2013, 8:29 AM ET

Heres our live blog of the stock market Friday. We started off with the Empire State index, a weak report from Nordstrom, and a bounce in Exxon Mobil and then went through to the Zulily IPO, Twitter options and the weekly numbers.

Looking for a one-story wrap of the markets? Its here.

How can we make this blog better? You can comment below or email lmandaro@marketwatch.com.

Good morning. Well, a rush of data just hit the wire. The one with the most reflection on recent activity is the November Empire State index. It turned negative, the first negative reading since May. Stock futures are holding onto gains. Dow index futures are up 27 points, S&P 500 futures are up 3 and Nasdaq 100 futures are up around 4.

Heres our full read on pre-market moves.

Since Thursday evening weve been wading through 13fs, the securities filings big money managers make about their significant stakes 45 days after the end of the quarter.

Our favorite: George Soros. Not only did he load up on Microsoft Corp. and FedEx Corp. but he cut down on a put position, basically a hedging position, on the S&P 500 tracker SPY. The ETF is edging higher pre-market, by the way.

This could be a hot IPO or it could be a big disappointment like Chegg earlier this week. Zulily will start trading on the Nadaq under the ticker ZU later today. Late Thursday it raised its IPO price to $22. above an earlier range of $18 o $20. IPO Boutique had flagged strong demand earlier this week.

t.co/CCQGmGIOrN

Rex Nutting (@RexNutting) November 15, 2013

A minute to the opening bell and it looks like a mildly higher opening. Dow futures are up 28 points. Exxon may get a pop after Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway disclosed a stake. Its up about 1% premarket.

Slight gains at the open. Dows up single digits. Remember, though, it closed Thursday at a record.

Exxon sees nice 1.2% gain from Warren Buffett investment.

The real news seem to be in Fannie & Freddie shares, up some 17%-18% each after Bill Ackman took a stake .

Its very important to note with Fannie & Freddie you, the common shareholder, are entitled to zero profits. Nada. Zilch. All (except for operating costs) goes to the U.S. taxpayer via the Treasury Department.

So, in buying Fannie & Freddie, youre betting that either a) Congress will change current law when showing no inclination to allow a return into private hands or b) a court will disallow a previous move to send profits to Treasury.

(Youre also betting C, that profits will continue and the firm wont fall into a 2008-style collapse.)

Chinese ETFs are hot hot hot.

XPP is up 7.3%, FXI up 3.7%, FCHI up 2.9%.

Might be a bit of a tax boost to Equinix and Iron Mountain. Equinix wants to convert into a REIT and is seeking an IRS ruling. Equinix disclosed to SEC that the IRS is actively resuming work on its request. Iron Mountain made a similar disclosure. EQIX +4.2%, IRM +5.6%.

From our Market Snapshot. We got a glimpse of the future of the Fed under Yellens stewardship and the verdict from markets is that we should expect policy continuity when Yellen officially takes the reins next year, analysts at Deutsche Bank wrote in a note.