Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] Stocks opened to broad gains this morning, sending the S&P 500 (+1.6%), Nasdaq Composite (+2.0%), and DJIA (+1.3%) higher.

Ten S&P 500 sectors trade higher, with tech and mega-cap stocks among the early outperformers after weighing on the major averages yesterday.

NVIDIA (NVDA 169.93, +4.76, +2.88%) and other large chipmaker names trade higher, helping the PHLX Semiconductor Index (+2.6%) take back a nice chunk of yesterday’s weakness. The information technology sector (+1.8%) has reclaimed all of yesterday’s slide and then some shortly after the open.

The communication services sector (+2.1%) is also off to a nice start as Meta Platforms (META 556.66, +20.28, +3.78%) continues to steadily climb from recent lows after the company was found liable in a social media addiction trial last week.

Meanwhile, the consumer discretionary sector (+2.2%) holds the widest gain, with cruise lines among the outperformers as oil prices remain flattish today.

Crude oil is currently down $0.06 (-0.1%) to $102.82 per barrel. President Trump signaled a willingness to end the war in Iran even without the Strait of Hormuz fully reopening.

On the data front, the Chicago PMI for March contracted to 52.8 (Briefing.com consensus 54.8) from a prior level of 57.7.

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index increased slightly in March to 91.8 (Briefing.com consensus: 88.0) from 91.2 in February.

The February Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) reported 6.882 million job openings (Briefing.com consensus 6.795 million), from an upwardly revised prior level of 7.24 million (from 6.946 million).