Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The major averages are trading in a steady range well below their opening levels, on track to close the week in negative territory. 

Only the defensive consumer staples sector (+0.6%) remains in positive territory, with strong leadership in its top components. 

Losses are broad-based elsewhere, with decliners outpacing advancers by a greater than 3-to-1 ratio on the NSYE and a nearly 6-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The July ISM Manufacturing Index checked in at 48.0% for July (Briefing.com consensus: 49.5%), down one percentage point from the 49.0% reading for June. The dividing line between expansion and contraction is 50.0%, so the July figure suggests manufacturing activity contracted at a faster pace than the prior month.

The key takeaway from the report is that 79% of the sector's GDP contracted in July. That is up from 46% in June and suggests the manufacturing sector has not yet seen the benefits of onshoring in response to the tariff actions, which themselves have stoked a good bit of planning uncertainty per the observations of survey respondents