Major US stock indexes ended in positive territory

Major US stock indexes rose slightly in the session, helped by the appreciation of financial stocks, as well as favorable US data.

Data from Automatic Data Processing (ADP) showed that the growth rate of employment in the US private sector accelerated in September, stronger than experts' forecasts. According to the report, in September, the number of employed increased by 230 thousand people compared to August, at the level of 168 thousand, which was revised from 163 thousand. Analysts had expected that the number of employees would increase by 185 thousand.

In addition, a separate report showed that the index of business activity in the US service sector, calculated by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), improved in September to 61.6 points from 58.6 points in August. The latter value was the highest since 1997. Analysts predicted that the index will drop to 58.0 points. The ISM said that the expansion of activity in the services sector has been recorded for the 104th consecutive month.

Most of the components of DOW finished trading in the red (17 out of 30). The outsider was The Procter & Gamble Company (PG, -1.66%). The growth leader was Caterpillar Inc. (CAT, + 2.20%).

Most sectors of the S & P recorded an increase. The financial sector grew the most (+ 0.6%), while the utility sector showed the largest decline (-0.9%)

At the time of closing:

Index

Dow 26,828.39 +54.45 +0.20%

S & P 500 2,925.51 +2.08 +0.07%

Nasdaq 100 8,025.08 +25.54 +0.32%