Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.1%), the S&P 500 (+0.2%), and the Nasdaq Composite (+0.2%) trade slightly higher than prior closing levels despite the move higher in yields after this morning's data. 

The 10-yr yield was sitting at 4.44% before the January Employment Situation report at 8:30 ET, which showed an increase in average hourly earnings on a nominal and real basis that may not bode well for inflation prospects. The 10-yr yield, which is most sensitive to changes in inflation, jumped to 4.50% in response and sits at 4.49% now. The 2-yr yield, which is most sensitive to changes in the fed funds rates jumped from 4.24% to 4.26%.

The upside bias in equities is supported by a continued tendency to buy on weakness, along with gains in some mega cap names. Meta Platforms (META 723.60, +11.51, +1.7%), NVIDIA (NVDA 130.06, +1.38, +1.1%), Microsoft (MSFT 417.93, +2.11, +0.5%), Tesla (TSLA 377.11, +2.72, +0.8%), and Eli Lilly (LLY 880.23, +10.26, +1.2%) are standouts from the space. 

Just in, wholesale inventories dropped 0.5% in December (Briefing.com consensus -0.5%) following a 0.2% decline in November.

The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment survey dropped to 67.8 in the preliminary February reading (Briefing.com consensus 71.3) from 71.1 in January.