Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] Stocks are off to a mostly lower start following yesterday's broad retreat, with considerable weakness across technology names weighing heavily on the Nasdaq Composite (-1.1%) while the S&P 500 (-0.6%) and DJIA (-0.4%) hold more modest losses.

Crude oil continues to move higher this morning, currently up $2.60 (+3.0%) to $88.37 per barrel. In combination with rising interest rates, the spike in oil has set the market up for relatively broad opening weakness, though the energy sector (+1.2%) is unsurprisingly a standout.

The information technology sector (-1.3%), which managed a modest gain yesterday’s action, is a laggard today, pressured by a 2.9% slide in the PHLX Semiconductor Index.

The consumer discretionary sector (-1.4%) is also a point of weakness as Tesla (TSLA 358.81, -9.14, -2.49%) gives back the bulk of yesterday's advance.

Meanwhile, the defensive consumer staples (+0.9%) and health care (+0.5%) sectors hold decent gains as investors rotate out of more growth-oriented and cyclical sectors of the market. Dollar Tree (DLTR 129.83, +3.24, +2.56%) is among the top-performing S&P 500 components, while managed care names largely outperform.

On the economic data front, the final reading of the S&P Global U.S. Manufacturing PMI came in at 53.9, from the prior reading of 53.2.

Construction spending decreased 0.5% month-over-month in July (Briefing.com consensus: 0.2%) following an upwardly revised unchanged reading (from -0.1%) for June.

The ISM Manufacturing Index decreased to 54.6% in August (Briefing.com consensus 55.3%) from 55.6% in July.

The July Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey reported 7.271 million job openings (Briefing.com consensus 7.39 million), from a downwardly revised prior reading of 7.182 million (from 7.359 million).