Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (+0.8%), Nasdaq Composite (+1.1%), and DJIA (+0.6%) continue to move higher this morning amid broad strength, solid tech leadership, and falling oil prices.

The ISM Manufacturing Index checked in at 52.7% for April (Briefing.com consensus: 53.1%), unchanged from March. The dividing line between expansion and contraction is 50.0%, so the April figure suggests the rate of change in manufacturing activity in April was the same as in March.

The key takeaway from the report is that it had some stagflation aspects for the manufacturing sector, namely low growth, a further contraction in employment, and a stark increase in the prices index, which has risen 25.6 percentage points in the last three months.