Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (-0.4%) hovers just above its low, making for a continuation of a sideways first half of the trading day. Small caps underperformed during yesterday's intraday recovery effort, but today, the Russell trades little changed, outpacing the S&P 500. Altogether, this puts the small cap index essentially back in line with the S&P 500 when it comes to this week's performance.

Most S&P 500 sectors trade well within 1.0% of their closing levels from last week, but energy (-0.6%) is already down 2.1% for the week while crude oil is up $0.43, or 0.7%, since Friday. Granted, natural gas futures fell to a three-week low yesterday, but that has been recovered today.

Treasuries remain mixed with the 2-yr note (-2 bps to 3.96%) holding a modest gain while the long bond lags (+3 bps to 4.97%).