Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] While the major averages soared this morning in response to yesterday afternoon's mega-cap earnings reports, the broader market has struggled, leading to slimmer gains amongst the cohort.

Pharmaceutical stocks are being pressured by President Trump's declaration that he sent letters to 17 pharmaceutical CEOs demanding an extension of most favored drug pricing by September 29, raising concerns about their earnings prospects. The health care sector (-1.9%) is now the worst-performing S&P 500 sector today.

The technology sector (unch) is now flat for the day after being up 1.3% in response to Microsoft's (MSFT 534.83, +21.59, +4.2%) earnings reports. Chipmakers continue to underperform, sending the PHLX Semiconductor Index down 3.0%, which puts it into negative territory (-0.6%) for the week.

Decliners now outpace advacners by a 15-to-11 ratio on the NYSE and a 5-to-3 ratio on the Nasdaq. 

The S&P 500 sits unchanged for the day, while the Nasdaq Composite (+0.3%) defends a modest gain and the DJIA (-0.3%) lags.