Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market has mounted a steady, broad-based rebound effort after opening to fairly wide losses this morning. 

The S&P 500 (+0.1%), Nasdaq Composite (-0.3%), and DJIA (+0.6%) all held losses over 1.0% at the open after Reuters reported that China sanctioned five U.S.-linked subsidiaries of the South Korean shipbuilding company, Hanwha Ocean. Yesterday's index-level advance was driven by President Trump's remarks that reassured "all will be fine" in regard to China, so news of an escalation this morning unsurprisingly sent futures sharply lower. 

Mega-cap and semiconductor names paced the early losses, though they too have improved significantly since the open. The information technology sector (-0.9%) is the only S&P 500 sector to remain in negative territory, with some persisting weakness in semiconductor names keeping the PHLX Semiconductor Index (-0.7%) beneath its flat line. 

However, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD 224.65, +8.23, +3.80%) is one of the top-performing names in the sector after CNBC reported that Oracle (ORCL 304.18, -3.83, -1.24%) Cloud Infrastructure announced that it will deploy 50,000 AMD GPUs in the back half of next year, signaling increased competition for NVIDIA's (NVDA 184.06, -4.26, -2.26%) industry-leading GPUs.

The Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF now holds a modest 0.4% loss after being down over 1.0% earlier in the session. Improvements across mega-cap names have lifted the communication services (+0.5%) and consumer discretionary (+0.2%) sectors from negative territory after spending most of the session with similar losses to that of the information technology sector. 

The S&P 500 Equal Weighted Index (+0.9%) still handily outperforms the market-weighted S&P 500 (+0.2%).

The financials sector (+1.2%) also overcame an early loss and now sits near the top of the leaderboard. Wells Fargo (WFC 84.38, +5.46, +6.92%) and Citigroup (C 100.24, +4.14, +4.31%) trade higher after reporting nice Q3 earnings beats, while JPMorgan Chase (JPM 304.48, -3.49, -1.13%) and Goldman Sachs (GS 775.89, -10.89, -1.38%) face some pressure after earnings beats of their own. 

While the consumer staples sector (+1.0%) no longer holds a commanding lead over the other S&P 500 sectors, it still holds a nice gain after midday. Walmart (WMT 106.45, +4.33, +4.24%) trades sharply higher today, benefitting from the splendor of announcing a partnership with OpenAI, with several similar announcements pushing some tech names higher in recent weeks.

Outside of the S&P 500, the small-cap Russell 2000 (+1.0%) and S&P Mid Cap 400 (+1.0%) outperform as sentiment in the market continues to improve from the open.

Though the market did not receive any consequential economic data today, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in a speech today that downside risks to the job market have risen, citing a low-hire, low-fire dynamic and slower momentum. While Mr. Powell did not directly comment on his expectations for near-term monetary policy, the market's high expectations for 25-basis point rate cuts at both the October and December FOMC meetings have held steady following his address. 

Reviewing today's data:

• September NFIB Small Business Optimism 98.8; Prior 100.8