Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market opened to broad gains, with the S&P 500 (+0.5%), Nasdaq Composite (+0.5%), and DJIA (+0.5%) reclaiming a meaningful chunk of yesterday's weakness, though they are off of their best opening levels.

Oil prices have seen some relief this morning, with crude oil currently trading at $1.57 (-1.6%) lower at $94.16 per barrel. 

All eleven S&P 500 sectors trade higher, with a solid gain in the top-weighted information technology sector (+1.0%). Semiconductor stocks, and in particular, memory storage names such as Western Digital (WDC 275.00, +13.82, +5.29%) and Micron (MU 423.54, +18.19, +4.49%) are among the outperformers, pushing the PHLX Semiconductor Index 2.0% higher. 

Other early outperformers include the utilities sector (+1.4%), which expands upon yesterday's strength, and the financials sector (+0.7%), which is supported by a rebound across asset manager names. 

The January Job Openings and Labor Turnover (JOLTS) report saw 6.946 million job openings, up from an upwardly revised 6.550 (from 6.542 million).

The preliminary University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment reading for March was 55.5 (Briefing.com consensus 55.7), from a final February level of 56.6.