Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The major averages continue to steadily advance just after midday, with today's turnaround effort placing the indices back into positive territory for the week. 

Five S&P 500 sectors remain below their baselines, though losses are modest, as the materials sector (-0.6%) is the only sector to hold a loss of 0.5% or wider. 

The financials sector (-0.4%) is one of the laggards, though it too has halved its earlier losses. The sector faces pressure in major banking names such as JPMorgan Chase (JPM 305.89, -3.59, -1.16%) and Goldman Sachs (GS 797.65, -7.85, -0.97%), which contribute to the underperformance of the DJIA (-0.3%). 

The DJIA also faces a considerable loss in UnitedHealth (UNH 323.12, -9.40, -2.83%), though the health care sector remains flat as losses in managed care names are neutralized by strong performances across pharmaceutical names. The sector's week-to-date gain of 4.6% is still the best by over 2.0%.