Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The indices have moved off their opening highs, but continue to show relatively good resilience to selling interest. They are drawing support from the market's most heavily-weighted sector -- information technology (+1.0%) -- which accounts for 31.8% of the S&P 500's market capitalization.

Small-cap stocks are tracking ahead of the pack today, shaking off some recent underperformance. Presumably, this space has been heartened by the notion that the U.S. economy remains on a soft landing/no landing track. The Russell 2000 is up 1.0%.

Separately, Hurricane Helene is on track to hit Florida's Gulf Coast later tonight as a Category 3 or 4 storm. Its jaunt through the Gulf of Mexico has been an underpinning factor for natural gas prices; however, oil prices continue to slide with OPEC+ announcing today that it will proceed with a December oil output increase.

WTI crude futures are down 3.4% to $67.34/bbl. Brent crude futures are down 2.9% to $70.79/bbl. The S&P 500 energy sector (-1.1%) is today's worst-performing sector.