American Investors Trade Stocks Cautiously

On Wall Street on Friday, the Dow Jones and S&P 500 remained almost unchanged, while the Nasdaq index rose thanks to strong earnings from software company Oracle.

The Dow Jones index strengthened by 13 points, or 0.12 percent, to 10,607 points, and the S&P 500 by 0.08 percent, to 1,125 points. The Nasdaq index, on the other hand, rose by 0.54 percent, to 2,315 points. The more significant rise in the Nasdaq index is primarily attributed to a jump in Oracle’s stock price by 8.3 percent, after the world’s third-largest software company reported better-than-expected quarterly results and forecasts for future business.

New macroeconomic data, regarding consumer confidence and consumer prices, neither excited nor disappointed, thus having little impact on the market. Trading was calm, even too calm, analysts say, considering that Friday was the expiration date for four futures and options contracts, which usually results in greater price fluctuations and trading volume. The S&P 500 index managed to break above the technically important resistance level of 1,130 points at one point, but could not hold above it. Staying above that level, with significant trading volume, would be a positive signal for further market movement.

"If the S&P manages to break above the level of 1,131 points, it could rise significantly in the coming weeks. However, if it fails and falls back below 1,115 points, we could quickly slide towards the level of 1,000 points," says Uri Landesman, president of Platinum Partners.

Despite stagnation in recent days, throughout the past week, the Dow Jones index rose by 1.4 percent, while the S&P 500 strengthened by 1.5, and the Nasdaq index by 3.3 percent.

On European exchanges, stock prices fell on Friday. The London FTSE index weakened by 0.57 percent, to 5,508 points, while the Frankfurt DAX fell by 0.64 percent, to 6,209 points, and the Paris CAC by 0.38 percent, to 3,722 points.(H)