Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] Buy-the-dip interest isn't dead yet. The major indices have bounced back from larger (though not necessarily large) losses, with stocks in the mega-cap space spearheading some of the seesaw trading action. The Vanguard Mega-Cap Growth ETF (MGK) is flat after being down 0.8%.

The underperformance of the small-cap stocks this week has persisted. The Russell 2000 is flat-- nothing significant to be sure, but a performance that comes up surprisingly shy given the drop in market rates today.

To be fair, the Russell 2000 has outperformed all other indices this quarter (+8.5%), so the recent softness could very well simply be some backing-and-filling action into quarter end.

Separately, there is a "China stimulus" trade in play today, evidenced by the five best-performing stocks in the S&P 500, all of which (some more than others) have exposure to the Chinese market: Freeport McMoRan (FCX 48.33, +3.19, +7.1%), Las Vega Sands (LVS 44.67, +2.54, +6.0%), Global Payments (GPN 117.18, +6.20, +5.6%), Albemarle (ALB 92.52, +3.81, +4.3%), and Estee Lauder (EL 90.55, +3.85, +4.4%).