Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (-0.3%), Nasdaq Composite (-0.3%), and DJIA (-0.2%) opened with modest losses after a hotter-than-anticipated February PPI print (0.7%; Briefing.com consensus 0.3%) tempered some pre-market enthusiasm that saw futures trading higher. 

Additionally, oil prices are back on the rise, with crude oil currently up $2.50 (+2.6%) to $98.03 per barrel. The increase comes after Bloomberg reported Iran has threatened to strike more energy targets across Gulf states after Israel targeted its energy infrastructure. 

The energy sector (+0.4%) is just one of three S&P 500 sectors that trade higher this morning. The industrials sector (+0.4%) holds a similar gain as engineering and construction names outperform today, while the financials sector (+0.1%) is supported by a continuation of the recent rebound effort across asset manager names.

The top-weighted information technology sector (+0.1%) also trades slightly higher, keeping losses subdued at the index level. 

Meanwhile, losses are widest in the defensive consumer staples (-1.7%) and health care (-1.7%) sectors, which also lagged in yesterday's action. The materials sector (-1.5%) holds a similar loss as precious metals prices move lower this morning. 

Just released, factory orders increased 0.1% month-over-month in January following an upwardly revised 0.4% decrease (from -0.7%) in December.