US indices were mostly down at the close of yesterday's trading session. The industrial Dow Jones slightly climbed by 0.05%, while the tech NASDAQ plummeted by 1.26%, the S&P 500 index rose by 0.32%. Notably, Thanksgiving will be celebrated this week in the US, therefore markets will be closed on Thursday.
Traders paid attention to the message that the US President nominated Jerome Powell to head the Fed, who holds this position at the moment. According to Biden, the current Fed chair is doing an excellent job, especially during the crisis period that began last April due to the pandemic.
With this news, US banks' securities and Treasuries instantly jumped.
At the same time, economic activity in the US increased last month, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The Chicago Fed National Activity Index rose to 0.76 from -0.18 in September. The index exceeded the experts' forecasts, according to which the index should have reached 0.17 points. When this indicator has a positive value, it indicates growth above the all-time value, and a negative reading shows growth below this value.
Last month the number of transactions in the real estate market increased by 0.8%. A total of 6.34 million existing homes were sold on the secondary market in October. This is the highest level since the beginning of the year. Comparatively, this indicator was 6.29 million in September. At the same time, according to analysts, the index was expected to fall by 1.4%.
Besides, Morgan Stanley showed an increase of 2.5%, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew by 2.1%, Wells Fargo & Co. climbed by 3.1%, and The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. jumped by 2,3%.
The news about the upcoming acquisition of the Swedish company Ericsson AB by the US company Vonage Holdings Corp. estimated at $6.2 billion dollars, led to a 27% increase in the stock price of the latter.
Following the announcement of the head of Tesla Inc. about the launch of sales of the Model S Plaid in China next spring, the company's securities grew by 1.7%.
Shares of Activision Blizzard Inc. declined 0.3% due to reports that the company's CEO is going to resign if he fails to improve the company's reputation.