Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market drifted sideways throughout the entirety of today's session as a light batch of headlines and the anticipation of key drivers later in the week culminated in a palpable lack of conviction. The S&P 500 (flat), Nasdaq Composite (flat), and DJIA (-0.1%) traded in a tight range, never staying decidedly above or below their flatlines and failing to challenge record high levels from the previous week.

The market is awaiting the Fed’s Jackson Hole Symposium that kicks off on Thursday, with Fed Chair Jerome Powell's Friday address arguably the most anticipated development of the week. There is currently an 83.2% probability of a 25-basis point cut at the September FOMC meeting, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. Market participants will be listening closely to see if Mr. Powell plays into the market’s prevailing view or tries to temper it.

President Trump's Friday meeting with Russia's President Putin did not produce any immediate agreements, but it led to more talks in Washington, this time with European leaders, including the Ukrainian president. The hope is now that a trilateral meeting between leaders from the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia will take place soon.

Today's action, or lack thereof, reflected an uncertainty in the market's direction as it relates to economic policy, with little corporate or earnings news to stimulate excitement.

Breadth figures were relatively even throughout the session, with advancers outpacing decliners by a roughly 5-to-4 margin on the NYSE and a roughly 11-to-9 clip on the Nasdaq.

Five S&P 500 sectors finished in positive territory, led by the industrials sector (+0.4%), which saw a substantial gain in one of its smaller components, Dayforce (DAY 66.62, +13.74, +25.98%), after Bloomberg reported that Thomas Bravo is in talks to acquire the company.

The consumer discretionary sector (+0.4%) also captured a nice gain as Tesla (TSLA 335.16, +4.60, +1.39%) was the best-performing mega-cap stock on an otherwise lackluster day for the Magnificent 7.

The information technology (+0.1%), financials (+0.1%), and consumer staples (+0.1%) sectors rounded out the five advancing sectors. The real estate (-1.0%), communication services (-0.7%), energy (-0.6%), materials (-0.6%), utilities (-0.5%), and health care (-0.2%) sectors closed with losses.

The communication services sector spent the entirety of the session among the worst-performing sectors, nursing a loss in Meta Platforms (META 767.37, -17.86, -2.27%) that saw the Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (-0.1%) close with a modest loss.

The health care sector spent most of the day at the top of the leaderboard in what at the time appeared to be a continuation of last week's trend, but lost its momentum.

CVS Health (CVS 70.16, +1.57, +2.29%) traded higher after UBS upgraded the stock to Buy from Neutral with a target of $79. While not in the S&P 500, Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO 53.78, +1.36, +2.60%) generated some early buzz after its Wegovy drug was approved for the treatment of noncirrhotic MASH with moderate to advanced liver fibrosis. The company also announced it will offer its GLP-1 drugs, Ozempic (for diabetes) and Wegovy (for weight loss), at a cash price of $499 per month to self-paying patients through GoodRx (GDRX 5.12, +1.39, +37.27%).

Despite the broader market losing much of last week's momentum, smaller-cap stocks continued their trend of outperformance. The Russell 2000 advanced 0.4% today, and the S&P Mid Cap 400 gained 0.2%.

Retailers also traded generally higher today in anticipation of some key names reporting earnings this week, including Walmart (WMT 100.68, +0.68, +0.68%), Costco (COST 979.35, +7.31, +0.75%), Home Depot (HD 394.70, -4.68, -1.17%), and Target (TGT 104.97, +1.95, +1.89%). The SPDR S&P Retail ETF finished with a gain of 0.9%.

U.S. Treasuries started the week on a slightly lower, but generally quiet, note. The 2-year note yield settled up one basis point to 3.77% and the 10-year note yield settled up one basis point to 4.34%.

• Nasdaq Composite: +12.0% YTD
• S&P 500: +9.7% YTD
• DJIA: + 5.6% YTD 
• Russell 2000: +2.9% YTD
• S&P Mid Cap 400: +1.9% YTD

Reviewing today's data:

• The NAHB Housing Market Index fell to 32 in August (Briefing.com consensus 34) from 33 in July.