Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] Today's trade features a positive bias. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite each trade 0.1% higher, the Dow Jones Industrial Average sports a 0.3% gain, and the Russell 2000 trades 0.5% above yesterday's close.

Stocks are reacting favorably to some economic releases and to solid quarterly results from Alphabet (GOOG 180.07, +8.91, +5.2%). Private-sector payrolls increased by a larger-than-expected 233,000 in October and the September numbers were revised higher. Also, the advance Q3 GDP report reflected solid growth in the economy, boosted by consumer spending.

Many stocks are participating in upside moves. Advancers lead decliners by a nearly 2-to-1 margin at the NYSE and by an 11-to-10 margin at the Nasdaq.

Semiconductor stocks have been left out of today's rally, however, after earnings and soft Q4 revenue guidance from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD 150.41, -15.84, -9.5%). The PHLX Semiconductor Index (SOX) sports a 2.6% decline.

NVIDIA (NVDA 140.10, -1.13, -0.8%) and Broadcom (AVGO 178.34, -0.88, -0.5%) are notable losers from the space.

This price action has contributed to the loss in the S&P 500 information technology sector (-0.5%), along with a decline in Apple (AAPL 231.02, -2.68, -1.1%). Microsoft (MSFT 437.05, +5.12, +1.2%) has provided some offsetting support ahead of its earnings report this afternoon.

Meta Platforms (META 597.79, +4.38, +0.7%) also trades higher in front of its earnings report this afternoon. 

The health care sector is the next worst performer today after info tech, down 0.6%, following disappointing earnings and guidance from Eli Lilly (LLY 832.39, -71.19, -7.9%).

On the flip side, META and GOOG have propelled the communication services sector to the top of the leaderboard, up 2.1%.

Stocks are holding up well despite volatile action in the Treasury market. The 10-yr yield, which hit 4.20% at its lowest level today and 4.28% at the highest level, sits at 4.24% now. The 2-yr yield, which hit 4.09% at its lowest level and 4.15% at its highest level, sits at 4.13%.

Reviewing today's economic data:

• Weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index -0.1%; Prior -6.7%
• October ADP Employment Change 233K (Briefing.com consensus 105K); Prior was revised to 159K from 143K
• Q3 GDP-Adv. 2.8% (Briefing.com consensus 3.0%); Prior 3.0%, Q3 Chain Deflator-Adv. 1.8% (Briefing.com consensus 2.3%); Prior 2.5%
  • The key takeaway from the report is that GDP growth was powered by healthy levels of consumer spending. Personal consumption expenditures increased 3.7%. That was the strongest growth rate since the first quarter of 2023 and well in excess of the prior 10-quarter average of 2.3%. The PCE component contributed 2.46 percentage points to real GDP growth in the third quarter.
• September Pending Home Sales 7.4% (Briefing.com consensus 2.5%); Prior 0.6%