Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (+0.3%), Nasdaq Composite (+0.7%), and DJIA (-0.4%) have spent the majority of the session in a mixed seating as several mega-cap news catalysts prop up the major averages despite broader market weakness. 

Amazon (AMZN 256.04, +11.82, +4.84%) leads the mega-cap cohort for the second consecutive session, rising sharply in the premarket after announcing a $38 billion AWS compute deal with OpenAI just before the open. The stock gained nearly 10% on Friday after an impressive earnings report, which featured a 20% acceleration in AWS sales. 

The consumer discretionary sector (+1.9%) continues to reap the benefits of Amazon's recent rally after advancing 4.1% in Friday's action. 

Tesla (TSLA 467.97, +11.41, +2.50%) adds further support and contributes to a 0.7% gain in the Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF. 

The market's largest name, NVIDIA (NVDA 210.24, +7.75, +3.83%), displays exceptional leadership after finding itself in a plethora of notable headlines this morning. 

The Financial Times reported that the U.S. will allow Microsoft (MSFT 519.16, +1.35, +0.26%) to ship NVIDIA chips to the UAE. Importantly, the stock has not shown any signs of weakness after President Trump stated that the company's most advanced Blackwell chips will not be sold in China. 

The stock even found itself taking part in Amazon's rally, as the AWS compute will give OpenAI the ability to immediately take advantage of hundreds of thousands of NVIDIA GPUs. 

The PHLX Semiconductor (+1.0%) holds a solid gain, while the broader information technology sector (+0.8%) is the only other S&P 500 sector to spend considerable time above its flat line today. 

While the energy sector has returned to its flatline, the remaining eight S&P 500 sectors hold losses for the day. 

Most of those sectors have bounced off of their session lows, as only the materials sector (-1.0%) still holds a loss of 1.0% or wider. 

The consumer staples sector (-0.9%) is another laggard, as it is home to what was the most notable headline before the Amazon-OpenAI announcement. 

Kimberly-Clark (KMB 103.69, -16.02, -13.38%) has announced a deal to acquire Kenvue (KVUE 16.48, +2.11, +14.65%) in a cash and stock transaction. The deal provides a nice exit for Kenvue after a rough independent run and saves activist investors from substantial losses. 

The $48.7 billion deal gives KMB scale, diversification, and exposure to higher-margin consumer health, but its size raises leverage concerns, helping explain the sharp drop in the stock.

Breadth figures highlight the broader-market weakness, as decliners outpace advancers by a roughly 8-to-5 margin on the NYSE and a roughly 7-to-4 clip on the Nasdaq. 

While the majority of names move lower, outsized gains in some of the market's largest names continue to push the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite towards a solid start to November. 

Reviewing today's data:

• October S&P Global U.S. Manufacturing PMI - Final 52.5; Prior 52.0
• October ISM Manufacturing Index 48.7% (Briefing.com consensus 49.4%); Prior 49.1%
  • The key takeaway from the report is that the manufacturing sector saw its eighth consecutive month of contraction, with uncertainty about tariffs and the global economy tempering demand.