Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (+0.5%), Nasdaq Composite (+1.0%), and DJIA (flat) are mostly higher just before midday amid a busy day for the stock market.

After a somewhat choppy morning, the information technology sector (+1.4%) is back in the driver's seat, with investors buying back yesterday's weakness across semiconductor stocks. The PHLX Semiconductor Index is up 3.3%, which helps balance out a sharp drop in IBM (IBM 213.97, -76.26, -26.28%) after the company issued downside guidance.

Within the DJIA, IBM's loss is being offset by a sharp gain in Goldman Sachs (GS 1124.31, +78.40, +7.50%), which delivered perhaps the most impressive earnings beat among this morning's reports from the major banks, all of which exceeded expectations. The financials sector (+0.7%) holds a solid gain as a result.

Elsewhere, oil prices are volatile this morning. Most of the morning was spent with WTI crude hovering around the $80 per barrel mark, though a recent announcement from President Trump that the U.S. blockade will apply only to ships from Iranian ports briefly sent oil below its baseline. Currently, crude oil is up $0.76 (+1.0%) to $78.91 per barrel.

However, today's softer-than-expected June CPI (-0.4%; Briefing.com consensus: -0.1%) report is helping offset some of the uncertainty created by volatile oil prices, reinforcing expectations that the Fed will remain on hold later this month.