Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The major indices might be mixed, yet the broad market action at the start of today's trading is better than it appears.

Advancers lead decliners by a nearly 2-to-1 margin at the NYSE and by a roughly 12-to-7 margin at the Nasdaq as relative strength has accrued in areas beyond the mega-cap stocks. The small-cap universe is in a lead position, evidenced by a 0.5% gain in the Russell 2000 versus a 0.1% decline for the market cap-weighted S&P 500.

Mega-cap stocks, which had a banner week last week, have been a bit of a drag on the S&P 500, but other large-cap stocks are finding some favor, which shows up in the 0.3% gain for the equal-weighted S&P 500.

Weighed down by weakness in NVIDIA (NVDA 139.64, -2.80, -2.0%), which stems from a Bloomberg report that China has opened an antimonopoly investigation, the S&P 500 information technology sector (-0.4%) is trailing the tape. Separately, the S&P 500 materials sector (+0.9%) sits atop the sector rankings, benefiting in part from the news that Chinese leaders aim to embrace more proactive fiscal measures and moderately looser monetary policy in 2025, according to CNBC.

Just in, October Wholesale Inventories increased 0.2% month-over-month (Briefing.com consensus 0.2%) following a 0.2% decline in September.