Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] It's been a downbeat day for stocks thus far. The S&P 500 (-0.7%), Nasdaq Composite (-0.8%), and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (-1.4%) trade at or near their worst levels of the day. 

Broad-based selling interest follows another record finish for the S&P 500 yesterday, which invited some consolidation efforts. Unlike recent sessions, there hasn't been a rush to the buy on weakness yet. Decliners have a 2-to-1 lead over advancers at both the NYSE and at the Nasdaq.

Disappointing fiscal Q1 and full-year guidance from Walmart (WMT 97.43, -6.57, -6.3%) has contributed to the selling mentality. It has also weighed down the S&P 500 consumer staples sector, which sports a 1.2% decline. 

The consumer discretionary (-1.6%) and financial (-2.0%) sectors are also among the worst performers. 

Only three sectors trade up at this point led by energy (+0.7%), which is on a solid run amid rising oil prices ($72.77, +0.68, +0.9%) It's the best performing sector this week by a wide margin, sitting on a 2.7% gain.

Treasury yields are lower, which usually acts as a support factor for equities, but that hasn't been the case today. The 10-yr yield is down four basis points to 4.50%.

Reviewing today's economic data:

• Weekly Initial Claims 219K (Briefing.com consensus 217K); Prior was revised to 214K from 213K, Weekly Continuing Claims 1.869 mln; Prior was revised to 1.845 mln from 1.850 mln
  • The key takeaway from the report is that it covers the period in which the household survey for the employment report is conducted, and with the continued low level of initial jobless claims, economists are apt to be expecting a fairly solid increase in February nonfarm payrolls.
• February Philadelphia Fed Index 18.1 (Briefing.com consensus 20.5); Prior 44.3
  • The key takeaway from the report is that new order activity decreased from January while the prices paid index and prices received index both increased from January.
• January Leading Indicators -0.3% (Briefing.com consensus 0.0%); Prior was revised to 0.1% from -0.1%