Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] NVIDIA (NVDA 119.45, +1.86, +1.6%) is on the rebound after yesterday's post-earnings report decline. That is one reason why there is a positive bias in the stock market. Other reasons include some otherwise pleasing earnings news and/or guidance from the likes of Dell (DELL 112.97, +2.23, +2.0%), Marvell (MRVL 74.28, +4.44, +6.4%), and MongoDB (MDB 282.55, +36.83, +15.0%), and some otherwise pleasing economic data.

Specifically, the Personal Income and Spending Report for July came back pretty much as ordered, showing nice gains in income (+0.3%) and spending (+0.5%) and a steady state for the PCE Price index (+2.5% yr/yr) and the core-PCE Price Index (+2.6% yr/yr) versus June. 

The Chicago PMI remained in a state of contraction in August at 46.1, but that was improved from 45.3 in July and indicative of a slower pace of contraction. The final August Univ. of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment ticked slightly higher to 67.9 from the preliminary reading of 67.8 with consumers' short-run and long-run economic outlook improving.

There were some gyrations in the Treasury market following the releases, but changes relative to yesterday's settlement have been minimal. The 2-yr note yield is up two basis points to 2.91% and the 10-yr note yield is unchanged at 3.87%.

Mega-cap stocks have provided some leadership for the broader market. The Vanguard Mega-Cap Growth ETF (MGK) is up 0.6%, but there is more to the market's standing than just gains in the mega-cap stocks. 

Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sectors are higher. Energy (-0.3%) is the only holdout, sliding with oil prices, which are down on a Reuters report that OPEC+ is likely to raise its output in October. Advancers lead decliners by a nearly 2-to-1 margin at the NYSE and by an 11-to-7 margin at the Nasdaq.

The Nasdaq Composite is up 0.6%; the S&P 500 is up 0.5%; the Russell 2000 is up 0.5%; and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 0.1%.