Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (+0.4%), Nasdaq Composite (+0.7%), and DJIA (+0.1%) continued their record-setting streak today as a batch of favorable corporate tech headlines outweighed a lack of economic data and macro developments.

The market opened to broad-based but modest losses amid a quiet pre-market news flow, though investors promptly took advantage of the buy-the-dip opportunity, which coincided with several news catalysts in the top-performing information technology sector (+1.7%).

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated President Trump will finalize the previously discussed TikTok deal later this week. TikTok's algorithm will be secured, retrained, and operated in the U.S. outside of ByteDance's control, with Oracle (ORCL 328.15, +19.49, +6.31%) to serve as TikTok's security provider.

NVIDIA (NVDA 183.61, +7.01, +3.97%) made a sharp move out of negative territory after announcing a letter of intent for a landmark strategic partnership to deploy at least 10 gigawatts of systems for OpenAI's next-generation AI infrastructure. 

The advance contributed to a 1.6% gain in the PHLX Semiconductor Index.

Elsewhere in the sector, Apple (AAPL 256.08, +10.58, +4.31%) posted a strong performance as its new iPhone 17 is met with strong global demand. 

Outside of the technology sector, strength was relatively variable throughout the session. The utilities (+0.9%), industrials (+0.4%), and real estate (+0.3%) sectors round out the four S&P 500 sectors that maintained their gains through the close. The materials and health care sectors finished flat. 

Losses in the remaining five sectors were modest, as only the consumer staples (-0.9%) and communication services (-0.9%) sectors retreated more than 0.4%.

The consumer staples sector was affected by Kenvue (KVUE 16.96, -1.38, -7.50%) finishing as the worst-performing S&P 500 stock today, trading lower ahead of President Trump's speech this evening, which is expected to link the prenatal use of acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol) to autism.

Meanwhile, the communication services sector faced losses in both of its mega-cap components, Meta Platforms (META 765.16, -12.70, -1.63%) and Alphabet (GOOG 252.88, -2.36, -0.92%), which limited further gains in the Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (+0.8%).

Mega-caps still ultimately played a key role in today's index level advance as the market-weighted S&P 500 (+0.4%) outperformed the S&P 500 Equal Weighted Index (+0.1%). 

The small-cap Russell 2000 got off to an even slower start than the major averages, but solid afternoon buying activity led to a nice 0.6% gain. The S&P Mid Cap 400, however, never shook off its Monday sluggishness and finished flat for the day. 

On the policy front, investors heard from several Fed officials in the wake of last week's 25-basis point rate cut. St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem (FOMC voting member) said policy is now appropriately balanced between modestly restrictive and neutral, with Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic (FOMC nonvoting member) supporting just one additional rate cut this year instead of two.

Fed Governor Stephen Miran (FOMC voting member) sees the current policy as too restrictive, advocating for a fed funds rate that is almost two percentage points lower than the current policy.

U.S. Treasuries were unable to hold onto their modest overnight gains, as safe-haven interest faded away with the stock market overcoming opening losses and rallying to new record highs yet again. The 2-year note yield settled up two basis points to 3.60%, and the 10-year note yield settled unchanged at 4.14%. 

There was no economic data of note today.