Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (-0.4%) continues holding a modest loss with ten sectors trading lower.

The health care sector (-0.7%) is the weakest performer in the early going after lagging yesterday. The group is already down 1.1% for the week versus a 0.6% uptick in the S&P 500 with drugmakers among today's laggards amid a Bloomberg report that the White House is looking into stricter disclosure rules and tighter regulations surrounding pharmaceutical advertisements.

Biotech names display relative weakness with the SPDR S&P Biotechnology ETF (XBI 82.91, -0.46, -0.6%) and iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 126.76, -1.09, -0.9%) trading behind the broader market while insurers are preventing the sector from showing a wider loss with Humana (HUM 242.90, +7.51, +3.2%) ahead of other health care components.