Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (+0.6%), Nasdaq Composite (+0.9%), and DJIA (+0.9%) now all sport solid gains an hour into today's session. Strength is mixed in the broader market, but some of the market's weightiest names are among the outperformers, with the Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF up 0.9%.

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index increased to 91.2 in February (Briefing.com consensus: 86.0) from an upwardly revised 89.0 (from 84.5) in January. In the same period a year ago, the index stood at 100.1.

The key takeaway from the report is that the month-over-month improvement was driven by increased expectations, with all three components of the index—income, business, and labor market conditions—advancing from January.