Dow Jones and S&P 500 posted a fifth consecutive month of growth

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 posted a fifth consecutive month of growth. The indexes ended the last session in August with strong increases against the backdrop of key economic data and on the eve of the employment report. The blue chip Dow Jones rose 0.27% to 21,952 points, being supported most strongly by shares of UnitedHealth Group, Pfizer and Merck, which rose by 1.54%, 1.41% and 1.17% respectively. The wider S&P 500 added 0.57% to 2,471 points, pushed by the healthcare sector by 1.7%, followed by the technology sector with an increase of 0.7% and materials by 0.68%. Nasdaq rose by 0.95% to 6,428 points.
Wall Street went through various situations during the month, including political uncertainty, geopolitical tension and consequences from the Hurricane Harvey.
Today, it became clear that last week claims for unemployment benefit reached 236,000, which is their weakest growth since December 2015. Another report shows that pre-contract sales of homes fell by 0.8% in June.
Oil prices continued the upward trend on Thursday, even though they ended August with decrease. The US light WTI crude oil futures with a delivery in October rose by 1.27 USD (2.8%) to 47.23 USD per barrel.
Gasoline futures with a delivery in September rose by 25.5 cents (13.5%) to 2.14 USD per gallon due to the floods in Texas and Hurricane Harvey. For the month, the futures rose by 28%. Gasoline futures with a delivery in October rose by 14.2 cents (5.7%) to 1.779 USD per gallon.
Today, the US Energy Ministry unblocked 1 million barrels of oil from its strategic reserve to cover the consequences from the hurricane. The oil will be delivered to the Phillips 66 refinery in Louisiana, which was not affected by the disaster.
On the New York Stock Exchange, the gold also rose to an 11-month high, with a 4% increase for the month. Over the last three sessions, gold holds level of 1,300 USD. The gold futures with a delivery in December added 8.10 USD or 0.6% to 1,322.2 USD per ounce.
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