Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (+0.8%), Nasdaq Composite (+1.0%), and DJIA (+0.3%) have settled into a relatively stable trading range shortly after midday.

Notably, the market-cap-weighted S&P 500 is comfortably outperforming the S&P 500 Equal Weighted Index (+0.3%), highlighting the significant role mega-cap stocks are playing in today's advance. The Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF is up 1.1%, supported by a sizable gain in Tesla (TSLA 395.25, +23.03, +6.19%) and continued strength in NVIDIA (NVDA 215.58, +4.62, +2.19%) amid renewed enthusiasm for the AI trade.

Apple (AAPL 344.55, -3.18, -0.91%), however, is a notable laggard among mega-cap technology stocks. CNBC reported that traders at Goldman Sachs highlighted an unusual divergence between Apple and the Nasdaq-100, with the stock's correlation to the index reportedly turning negative this year for the first time. The trailing three-month correlation coefficient stands near -0.1, reflecting Apple's increasingly distinct trading pattern as the company pursues a less aggressive AI infrastructure investment strategy than other major technology companies.