Dow Jones has returned to positive territory since the beginning of the year

The American stock market ended its winning week on a positive note. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.8% (more than 300 points) and has entered a positive zone since the beginning of the year (+0.3%). The S&P 500 (+0.7%) and Nasdaq Composite (+0.5%) also ended the day at session highs.

The session started sluggishly: the main indexes fluctuated around yesterday‘s closing level or slightly lower. The restraint of market participants was related, in particular, to the preliminary report on consumer sentiment for May: the general mood worsened, and inflation expectations rose.

The annual inflation forecast rose from 6.5% to 7.3%, while the consumer sentiment index dropped from 52.2 to 50.8. At the same time, the survey was conducted from April 22 to May 13, two days after the start of the deescalation of the trade war with China, so it does not reflect possible changes in sentiment caused by the easing of tariff policy.

Buying activity increased during the session, which was facilitated by sluggish growth and fears of market participants to miss a further rally. The positive was also fueled by the resistance of quotes to early sell-off attempts.

Growth was demonstrated by the majority of stocks, thanks to which ten of the eleven sectors of the S&P 500 ended the day in positive territory. In particular, the sectors of healthcare (+2.0%) and utilities (+1.4%) grew by more than 1.0%. U.S. Treasury bond yields rose after the publication of data on inflation expectations. The yield on 2–year government bonds rose from 3.93% to 3.98%, while the yield on 10–year bonds rose from 4.40% to 4.44%.

Our American FTinvest 11 portfolio continued to decline slowly today, retreating below 730. The total decrease for the day was 0.22%, the index closed at 729.81. The total increase for the week was 4.14%.