Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] A steady wave of selling pressure off the open took the S&P 500 down to 5,918 before there was any real recovery attempt. There still hasn't been a real recovery attempt, but the indices are off their morning lows.

There is a generally defensive disposition governing today's trade. That connection can be tied to the outperformance of the counter-cyclical consumer staples (+1.5%) and health care (+0.6%) sectors, the buying interest in the Treasury market that has sent yields lower, and the jump in the CBOE Volatility Index (20.53, +1.55, +8.2%), which earlier traded at its highest level since the January 27 "DeepSeek" sell-off.

Tesla (TSLA 306.59, -23.94, -7.2%) is the biggest, mega-cap loser at the moment followed by NVIDIA (NVDA 127.01, -3.27, -2.5%) and Amazon.com (AMZN 207.69, -5.02, -2.4%). The FT reported that Tesla's Europe sales declined 45% year-over-year in January.

NVIDIA reports its quarterly results after the close on Wednesday.