Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] Heading into the final stages of trading, the major indices continue to drift lower (from higher levels). Fortunately, the information technology sector (+1.4%), which is the market's most heavily weighted sector, is outperforming and providing influential support that is underpinning today's gains.

Once again, the semiconductor stocks have a leading role in that showing. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index is up 3.1%, drawing energy from big gains in Advanced Micro Devices (AMD 126.69, +10.53, +9.07%), onsemi (ON 53.75, +2.73, +5.35%), Monolithic Power (MPWR 707.24, +34.23, +5.09%), and Applied Materials (AMAT 176.08, +5.49, +3.22%).

NVIDIA (NVDA 144.63, +2.66, +1.87%) is putting together a nice gain in its own right but is trailing the group's performance.