Major US stock indexes finished trading in positive territory

Major US stock indices rose moderately due to the price hike in technology segment shares prior to the publication of the quarterly reporting Alphabet (GOOG), while the fall in shares of the conglomerate sector and the health sector limited the increase.

Alphabet Company (GOOG) will publish its quarterly results today after the close of the trading session. This will be the last report of the company from the so-called FAANG group. Recall, the reports of other companies in this group were ambiguous: Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Facebook Inc (FB) published quarterly results that exceeded expectations last week, while Netflix Inc. (NFLX) and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) presented disappointing forecasts for the current quarter.

The focus of market participants was also on US data. The report of the US Department of Commerce showed that new orders for industrial goods in November fell by $ 3.1 billion, or 0.6%, to $ 499.2 billion. This followed a fall of 2.1% in October. Economists had forecast growth in orders of 0.2%. The release of the report was postponed due to the recently completed five-week partial closure of the government.

Meanwhile, a report from the Conference Board showed that the index of US employment trends, which is a combination of labor market indicators, worsened in January. According to the data, the January employment trends index fell to 109.56 points compared to 110.96 points in November (revised from 111.61). However, the index still shows an increase of 3.4% compared to the same period in 2017. The Conference Board said that the decline in the index in January was caused by the negative contribution of 7 out of 8 components.

Most of the components of DOW finished trading in positive territory (18 out of 30). The growth leader was Microsoft Corp. (MSFT, + 2.59%). The outsider was Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM, -1.46%).

Almost all sectors of the S & P recorded an increase. The greatest growth was shown by technological goods (+ 0.9%), the largest decrease was seen by the conglomerates sector (-0.5%)

At the time of closing:

Dow 25,239.64 +175.75 +0.70%

S & P 500 2,724.86 +18.33 +0.68%

Nasdaq 100 7,347.54 +83.67 +1.15%