Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (+0.1%), Nasdaq Composite (-0.1%), and DJIA (+0.4%) trade in a steady range at midday. 

The consumer discretionary sector (+0.6%) has steadily built upon its early gain and now sits near the top of today's leaderboard. Tesla (TSLA 440.41, +11.17, +2.60%) provides solid leadership after retreating yesterday, while weakness in Amazon (AMZN 232.11, -2.31, -0.99%) limits the sector's gain and highlights the mixed disposition of the mega-caps today. 

Homebuilders such as D.R. Horton (DHI 164.02, +5.56, +3.51%) and Lennar (LEN 133.09, +3.36, +2.59%) also sit at the top of the sector's leaderboard as expectations for a December rate cut remain near 90%. The iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF is up 2.1%. 

Elsewhere, Alexandria RE (ARE 49.87, -3.96, -7.36%) is the worst-performing S&P 500 name today, putting pressure on the real estate sector (-0.1%) despite over half of its components trading higher. The company reduced its quarterly dividend 45% to $0.72 per share, down from $1.32 per share.