Wall Street ends choppy session modestly higher

After starting the day in a quiet manner, major equity indexes in the United States traded flat during the first half of the session but gained traction later to close with modest gains.

Higher-than-expected profit figures from Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway and a lack of new headlines on trade allowed the market sentiment to improve. The CBOE Volatility Index, Wall Street's fear gauge, dropped more than 3% to point to a higher appetite for risk. Furthermore, reports of Facebook looking to offer financial services to its users helped its shares gain more than 3% on the day.

The S&P 500 Information Technology Index added 0.6% on the while the S&P 500 Consumer Discretionary Index became the best performing sector of the day with a 0.67% rise boosted by Pepsi and Tyson Foods' gains.

"We still have a good amount of positive sentiment coming from a strong earnings season. ... That's certainly providing a significant amount of positive force to stocks today," Kristina Hooper, global market strategist at Invesco in New York, told Reuters.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 39.13 points, or 0.15%, to 25,501.71, the S&P 500 rose 9.94 points, or 0.35%, to 2,850.29 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 47.04 points, or 0.6%, to 7,859.06.

DJIA Technical Outlook (via FXStreet Chief Analyst Valeria Bednarik)

"The Dow is now one step closer to re-test the multi-month high posted late July at 25,592, maintaining the positive tone, despite a limited upward momentum, this last due to reduced summer volumes and the absence of macroeconomic headers this Monday. In the daily chart, the 20 DMA extended its advance a few points above the 23.6% retracement of the latest bullish run, while technical indicators grind higher, with the RSI currently nearing overbought readings."

"In the 4 hours chart, technical indicators hold within positive territory, but the Momentum heads south amid an intraday decline, that was quickly reverted on a test of the 20 SMA. Overall, the index is skewed to the upside,  as it would take a daily close below the mentioned Fibonacci support at around 22,225, to discourage bulls."

According to the analyst, supports could be seen at 25.457, 25,411, and 25,358 while resistances align at 25,541, 25,592, and 25,640.