Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market opened higher with major indices showing gains ranging from 0.7% to 1.4%. The S&P 500 is back above its 50-day moving average (5,948), which acted as resistance last week. 

Mega caps and chipmakers are boosting index performance, but gains are broad based under the surface. The equal-weighted S&P 500 shows a 0.9% gain and nine of the 11 S&P 500 sectors trade higher.

The information technology sector leads the pack by a decent margin, trading 2.1% higher. The next best performer is materials, showing a 1.6% gain. On the slip side, the utilities sector shows a 0.8% loss, trading at the bottom of the lineup.

Treasury yields are higher, but that hasn't deterred buying in equities. The 10-yr yield is up two basis points to 4.62% after hitting 4.58% earlier. 

The S&P Global US Services PMI dropped to 56.8 in the final December reading from 58.5.

Factory orders dropped 0.4% in November (Briefing.com consensus -0.3%) following a 0.2% increase in October.