Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] Buyer conviction has been lacking, except in a few key areas, which has made almost all the difference for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite.

The "keys" are the strength in the information technology sector (+2.0%), the market's most heavily weighted sector, the relative strength of the mega-cap cohort, and the absolute strength of the semiconductor group. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index is up 4.0%.

The rest of the market seems to be hanging out, waiting for the next headline on Iran and wondering if this rally off the March lows is at, or near, an exhaustion point.

Avis Budget (CAR 231.02, +1.88, +0.82%) hit that wall hard. This heavily shorted stock went from 87.69 on February 23 to as high as 847.70 on April 22 on no news—or, certainly, no news that would justify such a move. Today, the stock traded down to $203.00, a 76% crash in less than two full days of trading.

That move has weighed disproportionately on the Dow Jones Transportation Average, which is down 6.5% this week.