Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (+0.1%), Nasdaq Composite (+0.2%), and DJIA (-0.2%) now tilt mostly higher as investors buy into this morning's early dip.

After broad early weakness, eight S&P 500 sectors now trade at or above their baselines.

Only the materials (-0.7%) and communication services (-0.6%) sectors remain more than 0.12% below their baselines, with Alphabet (GOOG 379.50, -3.72, -0.97%) facing pressure after a 12% post-earnings gain last week.

Factory orders increased 1.5% month-over-month in March (Briefing.com consensus: 0.5%) following an upwardly revised 0.3% increase (from 0.0%) in February. Excluding transportation, factory orders increased 1.6% for the second straight month. Shipments of manufactured goods were up 1.4% after increasing 1.7% in February.

The key takeaway from the report is that factory order activity ramped up in March, driven by widespread strength that was punctuated by a big increase (3.4%) in new orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft.