Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite started on higher ground today and held that higher ground throughout today's session. In fact, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished at their best levels of the day and with record closing highs. They did so, fortified by leadership from the tech stocks and specifically the mega-cap tech stocks, software stocks, and semiconductor stocks.

It was a concentrated rally effort, but because the market's most influential sector was in a leadership position, the major indices looked better than breadth figures suggested.

To that end, advancers ended only slightly ahead of decliners at the NYSE but held a more comfortable lead at the tech-dominated Nasdaq.

Buying efforts today followed President Trump's announcement that he will extend the ceasefire with Iran to allow its fractured leadership more time to come up with a unified proposal for securing a lasting ceasefire. The caveat is that Iran only has a short time to do so or it will face a resumption of bombing efforts.

Stocks were not rattled by this thought, yet oil prices ($93.01, +3.45, +3.9%) reflected some lingering nervousness about the unsettled state of affairs with Iran and the Strait of Hormuz remaining a chokepoint for global energy supplies and goods.

The higher prices took some steam out of the broad market relief rally seen at the start of today's trading. The information technology (+2.3%), communication services (+1.4%), and energy (+1.1%) sectors were the only sectors up more than 1.0%. Four sectors--real state (-0.7%), industrials (-0.2%), financials (-0.2%), and utilities (-0.2%)--finished lower.

The underperformance of the industrials sector was a bit surprising given how Boeing (BA 231.28, +12.12, +5.53%), GE Vernova (GEV 1126.01, +134.71, +13.59%), and Masco (MAS 73.95, +7.19, +10.77%) fared after their earnings reports, but weakness in the defense stocks and airline stocks dictated the sector bias. United Airlines (UAL 91.71, -5.42, -5.58%) was a focal point, falling sharply after it cut its full-year outlook due in large part to rising fuel costs.

Elsewhere, Adobe (ADBE 255.94, +8.76, +3.54%) set a good tone for continued bargain hunting in the software space after it announced a $25 billion share repurchase program, while the mega-cap stocks set a good tone for the market. The Vanguard Mega-Cap Growth ETF (MGK 84.06, +1.69, +2.05%) jumped 2.0%.

Tesla (TSLA 387.20, +0.78, +0.20%), which is reporting after today's close, trailed the mega-cap cohort, which was led by Apple (AAPL 273.17, +7.00, +2.63%), Amazon (AMZN 255.36, +5.45, +2.18%), and Alphabet (GOOG 337.73, +7.26, +2.20%), which unveiled new chips to power next-gen agentic AI training and inference at scale.

There was no U.S. economic data of note today. The Treasury market ended the day roughly flat, battling back from early selling efforts with the help of a strong $13 billion 20-yr bond reopening.

• Russell 2000: +12.2% YTD
• S&P Mid Cap 400: +10.0% YTD
• Nasdaq Composite: +6.1% YTD
• S&P 500: +4.3% YTD
• DJIA: +3.0% YTD