Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] A strong start to today's trade has the major averages inching higher. The Nasdaq Composite is up 0.3%, the S&P 500 is up 0.2%, and the DJIA now trades positive with a gain of 0.1%.

The information technology sector (+0.5%) starts the week on good footing, with early strength in chipmakers pushing the PHLX Semiconductor Index up 1.3% after a relatively slow past week.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD 172.50, +6.03, +3.6%) and Super Micro Computer (SMCI 57.14, +2.67, +4.9%) are early standouts, while Texas Instruments (TXN 189.88, +4.90, +2.7%) rebounds after an underwhelming earnings report saw the stock trade lower last week, with additional support coming from an upgrade to Outperform from Peer Perform at Wolfe Research.