Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The action in the stock market resembles a summer Friday before a long weekend. Volume is light, and there hasn't been much movement in the indices after the opening activity.

It is understandable that many participants were waiting to see the PCE report this morning before calling it a day (and week) and getting a jump on the holiday weekend.

The main pressure point today continues to be the underperformance of the mega-cap cohort. The Vanguard Mega Cap Growth Index Fund (MGK 383.64, -5.00, -1.29%) is down 1.3%. The losses within that cohort have led to a 0.7% decline for the market cap-weighted S&P 500.

Things aren't as bad for the equal-weighted S&P 500, which is down only 0.2%. In fact, the equal-weighted S&P 500, up 2.5% for the month, has outperformed the market cap-weighted S&P 500, which is up 1.8% in August.

The performance star, however, has been the Russell 2000, up 6.8% this month. The Russell 2000 Value Index, for its part, is up 8.1%.