Major US stock indexes finished trading in positive territory

The main US stock indices increased noticeably, updating record levels for the fourth day in a row, helped by the growth of technology companies, including Netflix (NFLX), Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon.com (AMZN).

Additional support for the market provided statistics on the United States. It became known that the number of Americans applying for new unemployment benefits fell in late September, although recent hurricanes continued to undermine economic activity in several regions. Primary claims for unemployment benefits fell by 12,000 to 260,000 people for the week to September 30. Economists were expecting 270,000 new applications last week.

In addition, the Ministry of Trade said that the trade deficit in the US fell by 2.7% in August to $ 42.4 billion from $ 43.6 billion in July. Economists predicted a deficit of $ 42.7 billion. Import fell by 0.1% to 237.7 billion US dollars. Exports rose by 0.4% to $ 195.3 billion. The trade deficit narrowed mainly due to higher US exports of drugs, semiconductors and equipment for telephone networks. Import of goods from China set a new record of 45.8 billion US dollars. The trade deficit with Vietnam was the highest at $ 3.6 billion.

Meanwhile, in August, production orders rose by 1.2% after a sharp decline in the previous month, the Ministry of Commerce said. Economists had expected growth of 1% of total production orders after falling by 3.3% in July. Orders for durable goods, which account for about half of all orders, increased by 2% in August compared to the previous estimate of growth by 1.7%.

Most components of the DOW index recorded a rise (22 out of 30). The leader of growth was the shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS, + 2.34%). Outsider were shares UnitedHealth Group Incorporated, (UNH, -1.38%).

Almost all sectors of the S & P index finished trading in positive territory. The technological sector grew most (+ 0.7%). The decrease was shown only by the utilities sector (-0.1%).

At closing:

DJIA + 0.50% 22.775.80 +114.16

Nasdaq + 0.78% 6,585.36 +50.73

S & P + 0.57% 2.552.11 +14.37