Major US stock indexes ended trading mainly in the black

Major US stock indices mainly increased, while Wall Street is preparing to publish a huge number of quarterly reports by companies this week, which is expected to be the busiest corporate reporting season.

More than 140 S & P 500 companies plan to publish their quarterly results later this week, including Coca-Cola (KO), Verizon (VZ) and Procter & Gamble (PG) on Tuesday; AT & T (T), Boeing (BA), Caterpillar (CAT), Microsoft (MSFT) and Facebook (FB) on Wednesday; Amazon (AMZN) and Intel (INTC) on Thursday; Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) on Friday.

According to Refinitiv, analysts expect that in the last quarter of the S & P 500 companies will show a decline in profits by 1.7% year on year, which could be the first decline in the indicator since 2016. According to CNBC, the profit figures of most companies that have already submitted their reports turned out to be higher than the analyst had predicted. According to FactSet, 76.5% of the S & P 500 companies that have reported, have shown higher-than-expected earnings. At the beginning of the reporting season, analysts predicted a drop in profits of 4.2%.

In addition, market participants closely followed the situation on the oil market: oil prices rose by more than 2.5% after the Trump administration announced that it would finally ban Iranian oil, which is expected to lead to a reduction in world oil supplies. According to analysts, this step can take about 1 million barrels per day of oil from the market. Shares of energy companies are rising along with oil prices.

The focus was also the data of the National Association of Realtors USA, which showed that sales of housing on the secondary market in March declined after February growth. According to the data, the total sales of existing homes, including single-family houses, townhouses, condominiums and cooperatives, fell by 4.9% from February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.21 million. Sales overall declined by 5.4% compared to last year.

Most of the components of DOW finished trading in the red (17 out of 30). The outsider was DowDuPont Inc. (DWDP; -1.85%). The growth leader was UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UNH; + 2.49%).

Most sectors of the S & P recorded a decline. The largest decline was in the industrial goods sector (-0.5%). The raw materials sector grew the most (+ 1.1%).

At the time of closing:

Dow 26,511.32 -48.22 -0.18%

S&P 500 2,907.98 +2.95 +0.10%

Nasdaq 100 8,015.27 +17.20 +0.22%