Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market is trying a buy-the-dip approach on the final session of the month. The latest inflation reading showed some welcome disinflation on a year-over-year basis, contributing to the initial upside bias. 

The S&P 500 trades 0.2% higher and the Dow Jones Industrial Average sports a 6% gain. The Nasdaq Composite has lagged its peers, showing an early decline due to losses in mega caps.

NVIDIA (NVDA 118.40, -1.57, -1.3%), Microsoft (MSFT 390.53, -2.00, -0.5%), and Meta Platforms (META 655.19, -2.05, -0.3%) are among the influential losers. 

Many other stocks trade higher, leading the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) to show a 0.5% gain and leading ten of the 11 S&P 500 sectors to trade up.

The consumer staples (+1.1%) and financial (+1.0%) sectors lead the pack while the technology sector (-0.2%) sits alone in negative territory. 

The Chicago PMI rose to 45.5 in February (Briefing.com consensus 41.2) from 39.5.