Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (+0.55%) is now in last place on Thursday afternoon, up about 35 points.

Briefly, S&P 500 constituents T. Rowe Price (TROW 111.52, +6.15, +5.84%), Williams-Sonoma (WSM 201.98, +9.85, +5.13%), and Western Digital (WDC 90.27, +4.37, +5.09%) pepper the top of the standings. TROW tops the average after news that Goldman Sachs (GS 746.66, +16.10, +2.20%) announced a $1 bln equity investment and strategic partnership to expand public-private investment solutions, signaling strong confidence in the asset manager's growth outlook, WSM appears to be garnering modest strength in sympathy to apparel peer American Eagle's (AEO 18.31, +4.69, +34.43%) strong print, while WDC is poised to extend its recent winning streak to seven of the last eight sessions.

Meanwhile, NiSource (NI 39.25, -2.55, -6.10%) is today's worst laggard despite a dearth of corporate news.