Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market is on a good track to begin today's session. The S&P 500, which threatened to slide below 5,900 as it approached yesterday's low (5,908), climbed to 6,005 a short time ago.

Rebound action in the mega-cap space has been an important variable in today's performance, yet there is ample buying interest thus far across the broader market. The Russell 2000 and S&P Midcap 400 Index are up 1.3% and 1.1%, respectively.

Advancers lead decliners by a 2-to-1 margin at the NYSE and by a 13-to-6 margin at the Nasdaq.

New home sales decreased 10.5% month-over-month in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 657,000 units (Briefing.com consensus 681,000) from an upwardly revised 734,000 (from 698,000) in December. On a year-over-year basis, new home sales were down 1.1%. The key takeaway from the report is that new home sales in January felt the brunt of affordability constraints that were tightened by elevated mortgage rates and higher prices.