Major US stock indexes finished trading above the zero mark

Major US stock indexes rose slightly, reaching new highs in the course of trading, thanks to financial, technological and industrial shares. At the same time, investors were cautious in expectation of signals from the Federal Reserve about their future path on monetary policy.

The FOMC meeting will begin tomorrow, and its results will be announced on Wednesday. This meeting will be extended - it will be accompanied by a renewal of economic forecasts and a press conference of the chairman. At the upcoming meeting, with a high degree of probability, we can expect the rates to remain unchanged. But the main thing in the meeting will not be this. Markets expect that in September the Fed will announce the beginning of the process of normalizing its balance sheet, which representatives of the regulator have been saying for several months.

In addition, as it became known today, the housing market index weakened in September. The confidence of home builders in the market for newly built single-family houses fell by three points to 64 in September from the revised August reading of 67 according to the housing market index (HMI) from the National Association of House Builders (NAHB) / Wells Fargo. In September, all three components of HMI suffered losses, but remained at healthy levels. The component measuring current sales conditions fell by 4 points to 70, and the sales forecast index in the next 6 months decreased by 4 points to 74. The component measuring consumer traffic decreased by 1 point, to 47.

Components of the DOW index finished trading mixed (15 in positive territory, 15 in negative territory). The leader of growth was shares of General Electric Company (GE, + 2.59%). Outsider were the shares of Apple Inc. (AAPL, -0.61%).

Most sectors of the S & P index recorded an increase. The industrial goods sector grew most (+ 1.1%). The utilities sector showed the greatest decrease (-0.9%).

At closing:

DJIA + 0.28% 22,331.35 +63.01

Nasdaq + 0.10% 6,454.64 +6.17

S & P + 0.15% 2,503.88 +3.65