Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] It's another lackluster day for the equity market so far. The three major indices are trading higher now, which has the S&P 500 (+0.3%) and Nasdaq Composite (+0.1%) further into record territory. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.3%) had been lagging its peer early on, but found some upside momentum in recent action.

Notably, market breadth is negative despite index gains and a 0.3% gain in the equal-weighted S&P 500. Decliners have a roughly 11-to-10 lead over advancers at both the NYSE and at the Nasdaq. 

The lack of conviction today stems from a wait-and-see mindset in front of market-moving economic data this week (CPI on Thursday and PPI on Friday) and the start of earnings season.

Solid gains in some mega cap names have propelled their respective S&P 500 sectors to gains so far today. The financial sector (+1.3%) leads the outperforms in front of earnings news from big banks on Friday. The SPDR S&P Bank ETF (KBE) is trading up 1.7%.

Market participants are digesting Fed Chairman Powell's testimony before the Senate Banking Committee ahead of tomorrow's appearance before the House Financial Services Committee. There were no surprises in his remarks, which featured an acknowledgement that the "likely next direction" of policy will be a loosening of policy, indicating a rate hike is not likely.

The Treasury market didn't react much to Mr. Powell's comments. The 10-yr note yield is up four basis points to 4.31%.

Today's economic data was limited to the NFIB Small Business Optimism Survey, which rose to 91.5 in June from 90.5.