Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] There is some churning in today's market, which is to say there is some relative weakness in some places but not overt weakness in all places. On the contrary, the equal-weighted S&P 500 is up 0.2% versus a fractional decline for the market-cap weighted S&P 500.

Additionally, eight of the 11 S&P 500 sectors are higher with gains ranging from 0.06% (consumer staples) to 1.4% (materials).

The materials sector has been energized presumably by China's policy stimulus measures, as the Chinese economy is a great consumer of raw materials. Copper futures prices are reflecting some of today's optimism that policy stimulus could turn the economic tide there. They are currently up 3.2% to $4.48/lb.

In other developments, the financials sector (-0.6%) is today's weakest area with bank stocks underperforming the market. The SPDR S&P Bank ETF (KBE) is down 0.7% while the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) is down 0.8%.