Major US stocks rose moderately after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Washington and Beijing would sign the first phase of the deal in early January. At the same time, investors ignored the impeachment report of the American president.

Market participants also analyzed a block of ambiguous macro statistics. Thus, the report of the Ministry of Labor showed that the number of initial applications for unemployment benefits in the United States fell from more than two-year highs. According to the report, the number of initial claims for unemployment benefits fell by 18,000 to 234,000, seasonally adjusted for the week ending December 14th. Economists predicted that the number of claims will fall to 225,000.

At the same time, a report published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia showed that Philadelphia's manufacturing activity barely changed in December. According to the report, the index of current total activity fell to 0.3 in December from 10.4 in November ("zero" serves as a demarcation point between reduction and expansion). Economists had expected the index to fall to 8.0. With a much larger decrease than expected, the index fell to a minimum of six months.

A report submitted by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) showed a much larger-than-expected rollback in sales of existing homes in the US in November. The NAR reported that home sales in the secondary market fell 1.7% to 5.35 million year on year after rising 1.5% to 5.44 million in October. Economists had expected sales in the secondary housing market to fall to 5.44 million from the 5.46 million originally reported in the previous month.

Most DOW components recorded an increase (23 out of 30). The biggest gainers were Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO; + 2.66%). Outsider turned out to be shares of Caterpillar Inc. (CAT; -1.43%).

All S&P sectors completed trading in positive territory. The conglomerate sector grew the most (+ 0.9%).

At the time of closing:

Dow 28,376.96 +137.68 + 0.49%

S&P 500 3,205.37 +14.23 + 0.45%

Nasdaq 100 8,887.22 +59.48 + 0.67%

U.S. stock-index futures edged down on Thursday as investors digested mixed economic data along with the announcement of U.S. President Donald Trump's impeachment.

Global Stocks:

(company / ticker / price / change ($/%) / volume)

Netflix (NFLX) target raised to $425 from $400 at Pivotal Research Group

Cisco (CSCO) upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays; target $53

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays; target $173

Micron (MU) reported Q1 FY 2020 earnings of $0.48 per share (versus $2.97 in Q1 FY 2019), beating analysts' consensus estimate of $0.47.

The company's quarterly revenues amounted to $5.144 bln (-35.0% y/y), beating analysts' consensus estimate of $4.781 bln.

The company also issued guidance for Q2 FY 2020, projecting EPS of $0.29-0.41 vs. analysts' consensus estimate of $0.41 and revenues of $4.50-4.80 bln vs. analysts' consensus estimate of $4.77 bln.

MU rose to $54.90 (+3.51%) in pre-market trading.