Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (-0.3%) briefly inched out of its opening range to a fresh session high, but the index continues feeling the weight of losses in eight sectors, led by technology (-0.6%).

Meanwhile, three countercyclical groups—health care (+0.1%), consumer staples (+0.4%), and utilities (+0.5%)—are hanging onto gains.

The health care sector outperforms with some help from UnitedHealth (UNH 316.48, +0.59, +0.2%) as the stock fights to build on last week's rebound off its lowest level in more than five years. As for consumer staples, the sector is rallying behind Kroger (KR 70.11, +1.15, +1.7%) after the food retailer's stock was upgraded to Hold from Sell with a $70 target at Melius Research. Utilities are seeing broad-based strength while AES (AES 11.41, -0.30, -2.5%) misses out on the party after being downgraded to Underperform from Hold at Jefferies.