Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The equity futures market had been indicating a modestly higher open, but it lost its confidence as the opening bell drew closer. The fade coincided with a fade in the mega-cap stocks that has carried over to the cash session.

It is nothing material. The Vanguard Mega-Cap Growth ETF (MGK) is down 0.7%, and the soft disposition among many of the market's most heavily weighted stocks has kept a lid on the major indices.

The S&P 500 information technology sector (-0.8%) has been pressured by some weakness in Qualcomm (QCOM 176.37, -3.35, -1.86%) after its earnings report, as well as in Oracle (ORCL 245.55, -4.76, -1.90%), Microsoft (MSFT 499.73, -7.43, -1.47%), and Apple (AAPL 269.00, -1.14, -0.42%). NVIDIA (NVDA 194.28, -0.93, -0.48%), up more than 1.0% in pre-market action, has also come under some selling pressure in the early going.

The biggest sector laggard, though, is consumer staples (-1.0%). It is getting pinched by Costco (COST 912.34, -22.69, -2.43%) following its report that October adjusted comparable sales increased 6.8%. Walmart (WMT 100.21, -1.26, -1.24%) and Target (TGT 90.27, -1.67, -1.82%) are other key laggards at the start of the trading day.