US stocks closed above zero

US stocks closed above zero on the background of corporate reporting and news. For example, McDonald's shares rose 3%, as the company said it is working on a plan to increase sales and profits, while Coca-Cola added about 1% after the publication of the quarterly report.

Visa has increased by more than 5%, and during the regular session beat a record $ 69.98, while MasterCard rose nearly 4% after the announcement of the Chinese leadership that the country will open its market to foreign firms to clean the inside of operations with plastic cards since June.

This week, reports unveil a total of more than 140 corporations included in the list of Standard & Poor's 500. Of the companies have already reported 79% better than expected earnings, 47% - in terms of revenue. "Reporting has so far been better than expected, so that the terrible consequences of which we were intimidated, have not yet become a reality," - said a trader Themis Trading LLC Mark Kepner.

However, sales of existing homes in the US rose to the highest level in 18 months in March, a sign that the housing market is gaining momentum after a slow start to the year. Sales of existing homes rose 6.1% last month from February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate reached 5.19 million., Said Wednesday the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Economists had expected sales to rise in March to 5.04 million. Sales for February were revised to 4.89 million. From the originally reported 4.88 million. Sales in March rose by 10.4% compared with a year earlier.

The cost of WTI oil futures declined moderately, due to the publication of the US Department of Energy data. Traders paid attention primarily on oil production data, rather than the further growth of oil in storage. It is learned that oil production in the US fell last week to 18,000 barrels per day, or 0.19 percent. It is worth emphasizing production decline recorded for the third time in the last four weeks. Meanwhile, the US Department of Energy announced that during the week April 11-17 commercial oil stocks rose 5.3 million barrels to 489 million barrels, while analysts expected an increase of 2.8 million. Barrels.

Most components of the index DOW closed in positive territory (21 of 30). Outsider shares were The Boeing Company (BA, -1.36%). Shares rose more than the rest Visa Inc. (V, + 4.18%).

Almost all sectors of the S & P index recorded an increase. Most finance sector increased (+ 0.8%). Decline recorded only the health sector (-0.1%)

At the time of closing:

Dow + 0.49% 18,038.07 +88.48

Nasdaq + 0.42% 5,035.17 +21.07

S & P + 0.51% 2,107.96 +10.67