Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The Nasdaq Composite's (+0.2%) modest gain after the open was enough to establish a new record high level, while the S&P 500 trades flat, and the DJIA (-0.2%) holds a modest loss.

The stock market's subdued opening follows a broad-based rally yesterday, while corporate headlines have been slim so far this morning. 

Five S&P 500 sectors trade in positive territory, led by the utilities (+0.3%), consumer discretionary (+0.3%), and energy (+0.3%) sectors.

Losses are equally modest, with no sector holding a loss wider than 0.4%.

Bloomberg reports that the FTC is investigating Amazon (AMZN 228.58, -1.37, -0.60%) and Alphabet (GOOG 239.70, -1.08, -0.45%) over potentially misleading ad pricing practices. 

Just released, the preliminary University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment reading for September checked in at 55.4 (Briefing.com consensus: 59.2) versus the final August reading of 58.2.