Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The Nasdaq Composite is fractionally higher, boosted by gains in some mega caps.

The Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (MGK) shows a 0.3% gain. Alphabet (GOOG 165.28, +3.81, +2.3%), NVIDIA (NVDA 107.85, +1.42, +1.3%), Tesla (TSLA 273.27, +13.81, +5.3%), and Meta Platforms (META 241.65, +8.50, +1.6%) are winning standouts in that respect. 

Separately, the final University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment for April rose to 52.2 (Briefing.com consensus 48.5) from the preliminary reading of 50.8. The final reading for March was 57.0. In the same period a year ago, the index stood at 77.2.

The key takeaway from the report is that even with the small uptick relative to the preliminary April reading, consumer sentiment remains at levels last seen as the world emerged from the coronavirus pandemic. There was a slight moderation in year-ahead inflation expectations, but those expectations still increased nearly two percentage points from the final March reading.