Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market's gains today have followed on the heels of President Trump's declaration that he is extending the ceasefire with Iran to give its fractured leadership more time to come up with a unified proposal aimed at securing a lasting ceasefire. They will only be given a short time to do so, however, or the ceasefire will end and military action will be resumed.

This latest development eased some of the angst that had been building yesterday; however, there isn't an unmitigated sigh of relief today knowing the Strait of Hormuz continues to be a chokepoint and knowing that Iran is not a fan of the U.S. continuing the blockade of its ports.

Some lingering nervousness is evident in the upward drift in WTI crude prices today ($91.96, +2.29, +2.6%), which has been a boon for the S&P 500 energy sector (+0.8%).

The bulk of today's gains, though, have been fueled by leadership from the market's biggest stocks by market capitalization. The equal-weighted S&P 500 is up just 0.2% versus a 0.9% gain for the market cap-weighted S&P 500, which has drawn additional support from the moves in Boeing (BA 226.48, +7.32, +3.34%) and GE Vernova (GEV 1116.00, +124.70, +12.58%) following their earnings reports and the move in Adobe (ADBE 255.01, +7.83, +3.17%) after it announced a $25 billion share repurchase program.

The information technology (+1.6%) and communication services (+1.1%) sectors are the only sectors up more than 1.0%. Real estate (-0.3%) is the only sector in red figures.

The Nasdaq Composite is up 1.3%; the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 0.8%; and the Russell 2000 is up 0.7%.