Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (-0.2%), Nasdaq Composite (+0.2%), and DJIA (-0.4%) hold modest losses after oscillating around their flatlines for most of the morning.

The energy (-1.7%), communication services (-1.1%), financials (-1.0%), and consumer discretionary (-1.0%) all hold significant losses, though a 0.8% gain in the top-weighted information technology sector, supported by NVIDIA (NVDA 187.20, +5.36, +2.94%) trading to a new all-time high, mitigates the index-level retreat.

Gains in the information technology sector's largest names offset relative weakness across other mega-cap names, seating the Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (+0.1%) with a slight gain. The S&P 500 Equal Weighted Index (-0.3%) trails the market-weighted S&P 500 (-0.2%). 

The health care (+0.7%) and consumer staples (+0.3%) also trade in positive territory.

This morning's economic data saw the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index fall to 94.2 in September (Briefing.com consensus 96.0), increasing probabilities for further rate cuts at the October and December FOMC meetings. While bolstered rate cut expectations have benefitted smaller-cap names as of recent, the small-cap Russell 2000 (-0.6%) and S&P Mid Cap 400 (-0.6%) are both down today.