Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] A late morning pullback in the stock market has the Nasdaq Composite trading on its flatline, while the S&P 500 (+0.1%) holds a modest gain, and the DJIA (+0.7%) continues to outperform.

Five S&P 500 sectors now trade in negative territory, though the industrials (-0.6%) and utilities (-0.6%) are the only sectors with losses wider than 0.5%. 

Meanwhile, the health care sector (+1.3%) widens its margin as the best-performing S&P 500 sector today. 

The sector benefits from strong leadership in its top component, Eli Lilly (LLY 656.70, +17.27, +2.70%), which introduced its type 2 diabetes-treating Mounjaro pen in India and also disclosed insider buys by several top executives.

UnitedHealth's (UNH 269.70, +8.13, +3.11%) advance contributes to the outperformance of the DJIA, as the stock now holds a week-to-date gain of 8.1%.

Elsewhere in the sector, Moderna (MRNA 26.82, +1.16, +4.52%) and Pfizer (PFE 25.06, +0.41, +1.66%) trade higher as the COVID variant Stratus continues to spread.