Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market has been in a steady decline to start the new week. The downside moves are driven by momentum after last week's losses, along with renewed negative sentiment around trade policy. 

This follows news that China warned nations not to agree to trade deals with the U.S. that could hurt China. Market participants are also responding to threats against the Fed's independence amid reports that President Trump and his team are looking into whether the president can remove Fed Chair Powell. 

Mega caps and tech stocks have an outsized impact on major indices, but many stocks are participating in downside moves. NVIDIA (NVDA 95.73, -5.75, -5.6%), Tesla (TSLA 224.79, -16.58, -6.7%), Apple (AAPL 190.66, -6.36, -3.3%) are among the influential loser. 

The market-cap weighted S&P 500 trades 2.1% lower and the equal-weighted S&P 500 trades 2.6% lower.

Netflix (NFLX 978.91, +5.88, +0.5%) is going against the downside grain, rallying after reporting better-than-expected Q1 earnings results following Thursday's close. 

The communication services sector trades 2.8% lower despite the positive price action in Netflix. Meta Platforms (META 482.27, -19.21, -3.8%) and Alphabet (GOOG 148.78, -4.58, -3.0%) have contributed to the decline.

All 11 S&P 500 sectors are lower with significant losses. The consumer staples sector is today's "best" performer, showing a 2.0% decline.

The dollar is also weaker, as is the 10-yr Treasury note. The US Dollar Index is 1.0% lower at 98.36 and the 10-yr yield is at 4.38%.

Reviewing today's economic data:

• March Leading Indicators -0.7% (Briefing.com consensus -0.4%); Prior was revised to -0.2% from -0.3%