Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (-0.7%), Nasdaq Composite (-1.2%), and DJIA (-0.6%) are charting session lows as losses widen across tech names.

Meanwhile, the health care (+1.3%) and consumer staples (+1.0%) sectors are charting a firmly higher course.

A host of medical specialties and pharmaceutical names dot the top of the leaderboard in the health care sector, though the gains are broad-based and relatively evenly distributed, reflecting a rotational move as investors seek more defensive positioning.

Strength is also broad in the consumer staples sector, with specialty store names such as Target (TGT 120.44, +2.00, +1.69%) and Walmart (WMT 129.75, +2.16, +1.69%)are taking back some of yesterday's losses in what was a notably weak day for retailer names.