Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market has spent the first half of today's session in a sideways drift, with a lack of conviction in today's trade evident as the market awaits earnings reports and economic policy developments later in the week.

The major averages currently sit with modest losses, with the action coming on lower than average volume and relatively even breadth figures. Advancers outpace decliners by a roughly 4-to-3 clip on the NYSE and a roughly 7-to-6 margin on the Nasdaq. 

Despite the slight advantage going to advancers, relative weakness in the market's largest names keeps the major averages from confidently entering positive territory. 

A notable loss in Meta Platforms (META 765.73, -19.50, -2.48%) has the Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF down 0.4%, while the other mega-caps trade with more modest gains and losses.

As a result, the S&P 500 Equal Weighted Index (+0.2%) outperforms the market-weighted S&P 500 (-0.2%).

Meanwhile, the Russell 2000 (+0.4%) and S&P Mid Cap 400 (+0.2%) hold modest gains, furthering last week's trend of smaller stock strength.

Meta's slide contributes to the communication services sector's (-0.9%) underperformance, while the real estate (-0.5%), energy (-0.4%), materials (-0.2%), information technology (-0.2%), and utilities (-0.2%) sectors comprise the six S&P 500 sectors in negative territory. 

The industrials (+0.3%), health care (+0.3%), consumer staples (+0.2%), and consumer discretionary (+0.2%) sectors trade above their baselines, while the financials sector trades flat. 

The health care sector benefits from one of the few notable corporate headlines today, as Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO 54.38, +1.97, +3.76%) is trading higher following the announcement that the company will offer its GLP-1 drugs, Ozempic (for diabetes) and Wegovy (for weight loss), at a cash price of $499 per month to self-paying patients through GoodRx (GDRX 5.16, +1.43, +38.27%). This move is expected to enhance accessibility for uninsured or underinsured patients, potentially boosting sales volume for these blockbuster drugs.

Elsewhere developments are sparse. The unresolved peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine has generated plenty of talking points ahead of President Trump's meeting today with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but the market has been little moved by this storyline in general. 

The lack of headlines has contributed to a lack of conviction in the broader market, with investors choosing to sit on the sidelines ahead of the FOMC's Jackson Hole Symposium that will feature a speech from Fed Chair Jerome Powell, arguably the most anticipated event of the week. 

Reviewing today's data:

• August NAHB Housing Market Index 32 (Briefing.com consensus 34); Prior 33