FX.co ★ The US stock market review

On Friday, the US deals closed with the stock indices advance. The major indices went to positive territory for the second sequential week. The DJIA added 47.53 points on Friday, or 0.46%, to settle at 10462.77, the highest close mark since August 10. For the week, the Dow rose by 0.14%. it is the second week of increasing. Since the beginning of 2010, the DJIA has edged up 0.33%. The Nasdaq Composite was up 6.28 points or 0.28% to settle at 2242.48. Within a week, the index moved up 0.39%. However, since the beginning of the year the Nasdaq Composite has dropped 1.18%. The Standard & Poor’s 500 increased 5.37 points or 0.49% to 1109.55 on Friday. Since the beginning of the week, the index has added 0.46%, but since the beginning of the year it has lost 0.5%.
Investors were buying oil companies’ equities led by the slight revision in the world oil demand forecast by the International Energy Agency. Shares in Halliburton ticked up $0.66 or 2.2% to $30.88. Papers in Schlumberger were up $0.78 or 1.3% to $59.31. Chevron equities gained $1.46 or 1.9% to $78.82.
However, the utilities sector fell, weighed down by a drop of $4.03, or 8.4%, to $44.21, in PG&E, following an explosion in San Francisco involving a natural gas pipeline owned and operated by the California utility. Friday's climb across the rest of the market came as data showed bigger than expected Chinese imports and a larger than forecast increase in inventories at U.S. wholesalers. The reports followed other economic releases over the past two weeks that have beat expectations. The latest data confirm that recovery pace has slowed down, but in general the situation keeps going well. Friday’s reports also support this trend.
According the US Commerce Department report, the US wholesalers’ inventories rose 1.3% in July 2010 compared to the previous month. Analysts had predicted the growth of 0.4%. More-significant-than-expected increase in the wholesale inventories was taken by speculators positively and also as getting ready among wholesalers for consumer activity growth.