Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (-0.5%), Nasdaq Composite (-0.4%), and DJIA (-0.8%) are modestly lower this morning as a surge in oil prices puts broad pressure on the market.

Nine S&P 500 sectors trade lower, with containers and packaging companies weighing on the materials sector (-2.0%), which holds the widest loss. A host of oil-sensitive and rate-sensitive names in the consumer discretionary sector (-1.7%) are also under pressure.

Crude oil is currently up $3.214 (4.6%) to $73.68 per barrel, putting pressure on Treasury yields across the curve.

Unsurprisingly, the energy sector (+0.6%) is an outperformer, adding to yesterday's solid gain that resulted from Meanwhile, losses at the index level are being softened by a modest gain in the top-weighted information technology sector (+0.3%).

Though there was considerable weakness across the group in the premarket, semiconductor stocks are garnering some dip-buying interest after yesterday's retreat, with the PHLX Semiconductor Index up 1.6%. Memory names such as Western Digital (WDC 557.23, +25.13, +4.72%), which held some of the widest losses this morning, are now among the sector's top performers.

On the data front, wholesale inventories increased 0.1% in May (Briefing.com consensus 0.3%) after an upwardly revised prior increase of 0.7% (from 0.6%).