Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] There has been no change in today's prevailing trend, which features the underperformance of high-beta stocks that are succumbing to investors' concerns about price bubbles, excess speculation, and stretched valuations.

That said, today is far from a washout trade. Breadth figures are negative but not astoundingly imbalanced. Decliners lead advancers at the NYSE, for instance, by a 2-to-1 margin. In a washout trade, that ratio would be on the order of 10-to-1 or more.

Today's weakness is part of a consolidation trade following a big run by the market's most important stocks. The absence of leadership and stark underperformance by the information technology sector (-2.2%) and consumer discretionary sector (-2.6%) have kept the major indices under wraps.