Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (+0.2%), Nasdaq Composite (flat), and DJIA (+0.1%) are now mostly higher as the top-weighted information technology sector (+0.7%) rises to its best levels of the session.

Existing home sales increased 0.2% month-over-month in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.02 million (Briefing.com consensus: 4.05 million) from an upwardly revised 4.01 million (from 3.98 million) in March. Sales were unchanged on a year-over-year basis.

The key takeaway from the report is that affordability conditions improved, with mortgage rates lower than a year ago and average income gains exceeding home price gains, yet overall sales activity remained tepid. The exact reason why is hard to pinpoint. A range of factors could be pertinent, from tight supply and not being able to find the right home to a bet that mortgage rates will come down more or to fraying confidence in job security