Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (-0.3%), Nasdaq Composite (-0.2%), and DJIA (-0.2%) are modestly lower shortly before midday, giving up slight gains from earlier as the information technology sector (-0.6%) struggles to lift the major averages against a backdrop of broader-market weakness. 

The technology sector has given up just under half of its early gain but remains firmly higher. Microsoft (MSFT 490.95, +7.79, +1.61%) and Broadcom (AVGO 397.67, +7.43, +1.90%) provide solid leadership across the sector's largest components after The Information reported that Microsoft is in talks to shift its custom chips business to Broadcom. 

Mega-caps are lower across the board outside of the technology sector, with Tesla (TSLA 438.57, -16.43, -3.61%) a notable laggard after Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on the stock and downgraded it to Equal Weight from Overweight, pushing the consumer discretionary sector (-1.4%) lower. 

The communication services sector (-1.4%) holds a similar loss as Alphabet (GOOG 316.16, -5.93, -1.84%) and Meta Platforms (META 669.48, -3.94, -0.59%) provide weak leadership. The Vanguard Mega-Cap Growth ETF is down 0.4%. 

Mega-caps are not the only point of weakness in the market, however, as nine S&P 500 sectors trade lower. Decliners outpace advancers by a roughly 8-to-5 ratio on the NYSE and a roughly 7-to-6 clip on the Nasdaq. 

The small-cap Russell 2000 (+0.1%) outperforms with a slight gain, while the S&P Mid Cap 400 (-0.3%) holds a loss similar to that of its larger-cap counterparts.