Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market is building on this week's gains. The S&P 500 (+0.4%), Nasdaq Composite (+0.7%), and Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.1%) trade higher after a flattish start to the session. Buying picked up in recent trading with no specific catalyst, but market breadth has been positive through the session, reflecting an overall positive bias.

A big gain in Netflix (NFLX 754.74, +67.12, +9.7%) following better-than-expected earnings results and guidance has provided some support to the broader market. This price action has boosted the S&P 500 communication services sector (+1.1%), which sports the largest gain by a decent margin.

The next best performing sector has been consumer discretionary (+0.8%) thanks to gains in its mega cap components. The only sector trading lower is energy (-0.6%) as oil prices drop below $70.00/bbl, down 1.4% to $69.12/bbl. 

The heavily-weighted financial sector (+0.1%) shows the slimmest gain among the ten sectors trading higher, clipped by a loss in American Express (AXP 278.80, -6.98, -2.4%). Shares are lower despite better-than-expected Q3 EPS results and above-consensus guidance. 

Fellow Dow component Procter & Gamble (PG 171.84, +0.56, +0.3%) garnered a positive response to its quarterly results.

The upside bias in equities is also related to a drop in market rates following this morning's data. The 10-yr yield, at 4.11% before the data, sits at 4.06% now.

Reviewing today's economic data:

• September Housing Starts 1.354 mln (Briefing.com consensus 1.350 mln); Prior was revised to 1.361 mln from 1.356 mln, September Building Permits 1.428 mln (Briefing.com consensus 1.455 mln); Prior was revised to 1.470 mln from 1.475 mln
  • The key takeaway from the report is that the change single-unit starts and permits varied across regions after showing across-the-board growth in August.