Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market has been operating today without any significant involvement on the part of sellers, outside of certain individual stocks that haven't had any true market-moving influence. Instead, the market has shown ongoing resolve as it waits hopefully for positive-sounding developments out of the U.S.-China trade talks in London, where export controls are being discussed.

A New York Fed survey showing a drop in inflation expectations, a CNBC survey showing a decline in recession expectations among CEOs, and a downturn in Treasury yields are other elements that have helped keep selling efforts in check.

The S&P 500 is near its highs for the session, aided by a steady performance from the mega-cap stocks and the outperformance of semiconductor stocks, which are keying on the possibility of a relaxation in export restrictions to China. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index is up 2.1%.

NVIDIA (NVDA 142.68, +0.97, +0.68%), up as much as 2.3% earlier, has been providing influential support, along with Apple (AAPL 204.64, +0.72, +0.36%), which is tracking higher in front of its Worldwide Developers Conference today.

Both of those stocks have spearheaded a 0.6% gain for the S&P 500 information technology sector. Today's best-performing sectors have been the materials (+0.9%) and energy (+0.9%) sectors; meanwhile, the financial sector (-0.6%) is bringing up the rear.

Notably, the small-cap stocks have outperformed their larger brethren, and the high-beta factor has trounced the low-volatility factor in today's trading, which is a reflection of the market's bullish-minded disposition.

The only economic release on today's calendar was the April Wholesale Inventories Report. It showed wholesale inventories increasing 0.2% (Briefing.com consensus 0.0%) following a downwardly revised 0.3% increase (from 0.4%) in March.

The 2-yr note yield is down four basis points to 4.00%, and the 10-yr note yield is down three basis points to 4.48%. The U.S. Dollar Index is down 0.2% to 98.96.