Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The major averages hold modest midday losses with the S&P 500 down 0.2% while the Nasdaq (-0.1%) outperforms and the Dow (-0.3%) lags slightly.

The first half of the Wednesday session has been quiet, as participants count down time to this evening's release of quarterly result from NVIDIA (NVDA 135.55, +0.05, +0.04%). These results will not only provide an update on the health of the chip industry leader, but they will also be used to evaluate the entire industry group.

While the broader market trades little changed, there is some weakness under the surface with the small cap Russell 2000 (-0.8%) and S&P Midcap 400 (-0.7%) showing wider losses.

Ten sectors trade in negative territory, but the utilities sector (-1.3%) is the only group with a loss wider than 0.8%. Materials (-0.8%) and energy (-0.6%) also underperform while technology (-0.1%) trades just ahead of the broader market and the communication services sector (+0.2%) holds a slim gain, continuing this month's show of relative strength.

With tariffs dominating the recent conversation, the market should be eager to hear from companies that have significant exposure to import duties, but today's updates from Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF 90.30, +13.15, +17.0%) and Macy's (M 12.29, +0.25, +2.1%) have not led to increased interest in discretionary stocks even though the pair beat their respective expectations.

Treasuries trade on their lows, having reversed the bulk of their advance from yesterday, which is not exactly what the market wanted to see. The 10-yr yield is up six basis points at 4.49% today, and is now down just two basis points for the week.

Economic data released this morning was limited to the weekly MBA Mortgage Index, which fell 1.2% to follow last week's 5.1% decrease. The Refinance Index was down 7.1% while the Purchase Index was up 2.7%.