On Thursday, the markets paid attention to the US statistics. Thus, the number of initial claims for unemployment benefits in the US for the week ended June 17, remained at the level of last week's revised figure of 264,000, while it was expected to decline. Besides, the number of housing purchase and sale transactions in the country's secondary market in May unexpectedly increased compared to April - by 0.2%, to 4.3 million.
As of 5:30 pm GMT+3, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.02% to 33,957.06 points, the NASDAQ Hi-Tech Index was up 0.52% to 13,572.11 points, the S&P 500 broad market index was - - by 0.13%, up to 4,371.25 points.
Over the previous three trading sessions, the Dow Jones fell by 1.3%, NASDAQ - by 2%, S P 500 - by 1.4%.
On Wednesday, US markets declined on the back of a speech by US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in Congress. According to him, almost all members of the Federal Open Market Committee consider it expedient to raise the rate by the end of the year.
According to XM senior investment analyst Charalampos Pissouros, investors took Powell's speech as generally hawkish and subsequently continued to reduce risks (Charalampos Pissouros).
