Trading results for 29 April 2025
Tuesday’s trading results turned out to be quite predictable and caused little surprise. The market remains moderately optimistic, and most participants still expect a brighter future – even though some macroeconomic indicators now point to the opposite. For example, consumer confidence data from the Conference Board was released yesterday, showing a decline for the fifth month in a row and falling below analysts’ expectations.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also published disappointing figures on job openings – the number dropped to 7.19 million, the lowest level since September last year, compared to a forecast of 7.48 million. One might have expected such statistics to dampen investor sentiment. However, that was not the case – by the end of the day, prices had even risen slightly. Demand was observed across nearly the entire range of stocks.
Ten out of eleven economic sectors closed the day in positive territory. Only energy stocks declined, losing an average of 0.57% due to falling oil prices. Still, this had little impact on the day’s overall outcome – all major U.S. indexes closed with solid gains, rising from 0.55% for the high-tech NASDAQ Composite to 0.75% for the Dow Jones (DJIA-30).
Indexes from the ITS family supported this trend as well, posting even stronger results than the NASDAQ Composite and S&P 500, but slightly trailing the more conservative Dow Jones. The ITS World Index (ITSW), which tracks global companies, rose by 0.62% over the day, while the ITS Shariah Index (ITSS) – focused on Islamic securities – gained 0.66%.
Notably, this time the best performers in the ITSW index were not U.S. stocks but European ones. The top three gainers of the day included the Israeli website builder WIX.com (WIX), British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca (AZN), and renowned enterprise software developer SAP SE (SAP). SAP shares, in fact, have been on the rise for a week – since their earnings report last Wednesday, the stock has jumped by more than 15%.
AstraZeneca and SAP were also the leaders in the ITS Shariah Index, but instead of WIX.com, Tesla (TSLA) joined them here. Tesla stock appears to have found a second wind following the publication of its quarterly results. Judging by current dynamics, the global decline in Tesla’s share price, which began late last year, seems to be ending, and a reversal towards growth may be under way.
Overall, not much has changed yet. The main events of the week are still ahead, and only after the release of labour market data on Wednesday and Friday will it be possible to make clearer assumptions about the stock market’s direction in May.