The last week began for the American stock market with predominant growth, thanks to the increase in the quotations of shares in the service and healthcare sectors.

At the same time, market participants were anxious to analyze the published statistics on China. China's July retail sales data, as well as investment in fixed assets and industrial production, were below economists' forecasts and showed a slower growth rate than in June, indicating that the world's second largest economy is struggling with a slowdown. amid rising delta-variant coronavirus cases and continuing disruptions in global supply chains. The focus of attention also remained on the companies' quarterly reports. According to CNBC, more than 91% of S&P 500 companies published their quarterly results for the second quarter. 87% of them posted better-than-expected earnings in the most recent reporting period, according to FactSet.

On Tuesday the market was in the "red zone" due to the fact that internal statistics did not meet market expectations. Another negative factor was the jump in the incidence of CJVID-19. Retail sales fell 1.1% last month, according to a report released by the US Department of Commerce on Tuesday morning. June data was revised to show retail sales growth of 0.7% instead of 0.6% growth as previously reported. Economists forecasted a 0.3% decline in retail sales. In addition, the report by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) showed that US homebuilder sentiment fell in August to its lowest level in a year. According to the report, the sentiment index among home builders for one family fell 5 points in August, to 75 points. This is the lowest since July 2020. As the Fed report showed, a 1.4% increase in manufacturing and a 1.2% increase in mining and quarrying combined resulted in a 0.9% increase in industrial production last month. Economists had forecast industrial production to rise 0.5% in July. Investors also drew attention to the speech of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. He said that the Covid-19 pandemic will be with us for a while, and it is not yet clear what the tensions associated with the delta strain mean for the economy.

The decline continued the next day following the publication of the minutes of the last meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which reported that the leaders of the Federal Reserve made it clear at the July meeting that they are on the way to tighten the policy later this year, despite the continuing disagreement over the exact timing of the withdrawal of monetary support for the economy, which has grown faster than expected this year. According to the minutes, a consensus is beginning to form among Fed leaders on the rollback of the central bank's monthly purchases of US government bonds and $ 120 billion in mortgage bonds. In addition, investors drew attention to the mixed data on the US real estate market: the number of new homes in the housing market in July fell 7.0% to 1.534 million in annual terms, after jumping 3.5% to a revised figure of 1.650 million in June. Economists had expected housing stock to fall 2.6% to 1.600 million from 1.643 million originally reported in the previous month. At the same time, building permits rose 2.6% to 1.635 million in July after falling 5.3% to a revised level of 1.594 million in June. Building permits were expected to rise 0.8% to 1.610 million in July from 1.598 million originally announced in the previous month.

There were no strong moves at the stock market on Thursday. Weekly US unemployment claims data indicated continued improvement at the US labor market in August. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 29,000 to 348,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis in the week ending Aug. 14, according to a Labor Department report. For the fourth consecutive weekly drop, applications dropped to their lowest level since mid-March 2020, when secondary businesses were forcibly closed to slow the first wave of coronavirus cases. Economists forecasted 363,000 applications for the last week.

The week ended with solid growth despite the controversial COVID-19 delta strain and concerns about economic growth.