Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market opened to modest gains this morning, reversing premarket losses after New York Fed President John Williams (voting FOMC member) said he still sees a path for a December rate cut. 

The CME FedWatch Tool's assigned probability of a 25-basis point rate cut at the December meeting now stands at 75.3%, up from around 40% before the comments. 

Participation is strong as a result, with eight S&P 500 sectors holding gains. 

Unfortunately, the information technology sector (-0.6%) is not one of those sectors, though it is well off of its session lows. The PHLX Semiconductor Index is down 0.9%, and NVIDIA (NVDA 178.47, -2.17, -1.20%) continues to struggle despite its stellar earnings report.

Elsewhere in the sector, Oracle (ORCL 194.41, -16.28, -7.73%) is the worst-performing S&P 500 name. 

Improvements in the technology sector have lifted the S&P 500 (+0.5%) and Nasdaq Composite (+0.3%) to their best levels of the session, while the DJIA (+0.7%) maintains its advantage. 

While weakness in tech names certainly limits the gains of the major averages, solid performances across the broader market reflect a rotational trade in play today, which is still a notable improvement from yesterday's retreat that reached nearly every pocket of the market. 

Meanwhile, the Russell 2000 (+1.0%) and S&P Mid Cap 400 (+0.9%) are mounting a solid rebound effort after yesterday's slide. Breadth figures are positive, with advancers outpacing decliners by a nearly 2-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a slimmer 11-to-9 clip on the Nasdaq.