Stock Market Update
17-Sep-26 15:35 ET
Mega-cap gains mask weakness in communication services sector
Dow +327.30
at 51789.20,
Nasdaq +442.74
at 26442.21,
S&P +87.62
at 7639.43
[BRIEFING.COM] The major averages remain little changed from previous levels as the market enters the final half hour of the session.
The communication services sector (+0.3%) is one of the weaker-performing S&P 500 sectors today, although gains in mega-cap components Meta Platforms (META 678.53, +5.22, +0.78%) and Alphabet (GOOG 343.38, +4.02, +1.19%) are masking more pronounced weakness beneath the surface.
T-Mobile US (TMUS 166.76, -9.50, -5.39%), Reddit (RDDT 152.50, -5.10, -3.23%), Paramount Skydance (PSKY 10.76, -0.38, -3.41%), and Comcast (CMCSA 22.95, -0.78, -3.30%) are among the worst-performing S&P 500 components today, extending a period of underperformance that has left each stock down at least 16% year-to-date.
By comparison, the communication services sector is up 3.7% this year, helped by a nearly 9.5% gain in GOOG and a 2.7% advance in META. The divergence is consistent with a broader pattern of mega-cap strength obscuring weakness beneath the headline indices, with CNBC reporting that half of the S&P 500's components now trade below their respective 200-day moving averages.
