Major US stock indexes finished trading mixed

Major US stock indexes ended the session mixed against the backdrop of the collapse of Boeing (BA) and General Electric (GE) shares and expectations of the beginning of the corporate reporting season.

Shares of Boeing Co. (BA) fell 4.5% after the company announced its intention to temporarily reduce the production of 737 MAX aircraft by almost 20% and analysts at Bank of America reported a downgrade of BA shares to Neutral with Buy and their (shares) target value to $ 420.

General Electric (GE) shares fell 5.64% amid reports that JP Morgan analyst Steven Tusa lowered their rating to Underweight from Neutral and target price to $ 5 from $ 6, noting: “We believe that many investors underestimate the seriousness of GE’s problems and their underlying risks, overestimating minor positive factors. ”

The season of corporate reporting for the first quarter of 2019 starts on Friday with the publication of the results of the largest banks. Analysts warn that the upcoming quarterly reporting season may be the first to show y / y reduction in corporate segment profits from 2016. According to Refinitiv, analysts predict that the profits of the S & P 500 companies in the first quarter will decline by 2.2% y / y.

In addition, the focus was on production orders. As the report of the Ministry of Commerce showed, production orders fell by 0.5% in February after practically unchanged in January. Economists had expected orders to decline by 0.6%. The reduction in production orders was caused by a drop in orders for durable goods (-1.6%), which more than offset the increase in orders for non-durable goods (+ 0.6%). Excluding a 4.5% drop in orders for transportation equipment, production orders rose by 0.3% after declining by 0.1% in January.

DOW components ended the bidding mixed (15 in positive territory, 15 in negative). The Boeing Co. shares turned out to be an outsider. (BA; -4.50%). The leader of growth were shares of Apple Inc. (AAPL; + 1.54%).

Most sectors of the S & P recorded an increase. The raw materials sector grew the most (+ 0.7%). The largest decline was shown by the utility sector (-0.6%).

At the time of closing:

Dow 26,341.02 -83.97 -0.32%

S & P 500 2,895.77 +3.03 +0.10%

Nasdaq 100 7,953.88 +15.19 +0.19%