Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market is doing its part to stand its ground in positive territory, not having faced much selling conviction today outside of some individual story stocks of note.

Fittingly, this is the time of the day that we typically provide some targeted insight on the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It just so happens that Merck (MRK 89.54, -10.25, -10.3%) is one of the individual story stocks feeling the brunt of selling conviction after disappointing investors with its FY25 guidance and acknowledgment that it has paused Gardasil shipments to China to correct an inventory overhang there.

Merck's losses have held back the price-weighted average, but as a "lower-priced stock," it hasn't sunk the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is garnering support from gains in higher-priced stocks like Goldman Sachs (GS 634.91, +2.54, +0.4%), Home Depot (HD 410.38, +1.61, +0.4%), Microsoft (MSFT 411.67, +0.75, +0.2%), IBM (IBM 262.62, +1.89, +0.7%), and Apple (AAPL 232.06, +4.05, +1.8%).

Including today's advance, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 4.6% year-to-date.