Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 has narrowed its early loss to 0.9%, looking to stay above its opening low, though all eleven sectors continue trading lower.

The market received just one economic report this morning, and it beat expectations. New home sales surged 10.9% month-over-month in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 743,000 units (Briefing.com consensus 679,000), though the March reading was revised down to 670,000 from 724,000. On a year-over-year basis, new home sales were up 3.3%.

The key takeaway from the report is that new home sales in April were bolstered by a decline in the median sales price; however, the excitement surrounding the headline beat was muted by the sharp downward revision to new home sales for March. Taking that revision into account, there wasn't a great deal of change in the March-April period compared to what economists knew and expected going into the April report.

Homebuilders fell at the open, but they have bounced off their early lows with the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (ITB 89.65, -0.50, -0.6%) trading near yesterday's low.