Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (+0.6%), Nasdaq Composite (+0.8%), and DJIA (+0.4%) are higher across the board this morning. 

Strength in the broader market tilts mostly higher, with technology and select cyclical sectors trading higher, while defensive sectors lag. 

The energy sector (+1.2%) boasts the widest gain as the price of oil increases $2.03 (+3.3%) to $64.29 per barrel. Yesterday's reports of optimistic developments between the U.S. and Iran have been met with some contention today. 

The financials sector (+0.9%) is another top mover, with Global Payments (GPN 78.75, +8.98, +12.87%) sharply higher after an earnings beat. 

Garmin (GRMN 254.99, +38.01, +17.52%) is also sharply higher after an earnings beat, helping the consumer discretionary sector (+1.0%) jump out to a nice gain. Amazon (AMZN 205.14, +3.99, +1.98%) is nicely higher today after capturing its first higher finish yesterday since February 2. 

NVIDIA (NVDA 188.36, +3.39, +1.83%) also expands on yesterday's gains, with news of a multi-year strategic partnership with Meta Platforms (META 634.93, -4.36, -0.68%) lifting it higher today. The top-weighted information technology sector is up 0.7%.

Industrial production increased 0.7% month-over-month in January (Briefing.com consensus 0.4%) after rising a revised 0.2% (from 0.4%) in December. The capacity utilization rate was 76.2% (Briefing.com consensus 76.5%) versus a revised 75.7% (from 76.3%) in December. Total industrial production increased 2.3% year-over-year while the capacity utilization rate was 3.2 percentage points below its long-run average.

The key takeaway from the report is that industrial production growth easily exceeded estimates thanks to a healthy 0.6% increase in manufacturing output, which was the biggest since February 2025, and a secondary boost from an increase in the output of utilities.