[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (-0.1%), Nasdaq Composite (flat), and DJIA (-0.3%) are flattish this morning as the broader market sees a consolidation from Friday's rally. 

Eight S&P 500 sectors trade lower, with the consumer discretionary sector (-1.4%) once again near the bottom of the leaderboard. The sector was one of just two S&P 500 sectors that closed lwoer on Friday, with Amazon (AMZN 204.86, -5.46, -2.60%) a notable laggard following the company's earnings report that featured a capital expenditure forecast of $200 billion. 

Meanwhile, the information technology sector (+0.9%) holds a solid early gain, helping to negate losses at the index level. Software names such as Oracle (ORCL 155.89, +13.07, +9.15%) and AppLovin (APP 442.75, +36.03, +8.86%) are at the top of the leaderboard after a sharp sell-off last week, with Microsoft (MSFT 407.58, +6.44, +1.61%) also nicely higher. 

NVIDIA (NVDA 191.50, +6.09, +3.28%) is also nicely higher. 

Meanwhile, the materials (+0.2%) and energy (+0.2%) sectors trade modestly higher as precious metal and oil prices tick up this morning. 

The stock market is on track for a modestly lower opening after a notable rebound rally on Friday. 

Apollo Global Management (APO 135.00, +1.97, +1.5%) is nicely higher in the premarket after its earnings report this morning despite missing on revenues.  The Information reports that the company is close to a $3 billion chip funding deal connected to xAI. 

The S&P 500 futures currently trade 13 points below fair value.

Equity indices in the Asia-Pacific region began the week on a higher note with Japan's Nikkei (+3.9%) soaring to a fresh record after a snap election resulted in supermajority for Prime Minister Takaichi's LDP even before factoring the seats that were won by LDP's coalition partner Ishin. The win puts the prime minister in position to implement her economic agenda. Finance Minister Katayama attempted to assuage investors by saying that there will be no additional bond issuance to fund the prime minister's agenda. Elsewhere, Thailand's election produced a three-way deadlock that was largely expected. China has resumed some rare earth exports to Japan while Australia placed a 10% tariff on steel imports from China.

• In economic data:
  • Japan's December Overall Wage Income 2.4% yr/yr (expected 3.0%; last 1.7%). December Current Account surplus JPY2.70 trln (expected surplus of JPY2.95 trln; last surplus of JPY3.14 trln). January Bank Lending 4.5% yr/yr, as expected (last 4.3%) and January Economy Watchers Current Index 47.8 (expected 49.1; last 47.7)

---Equity Markets---

• Japan's Nikkei: +3.9%
• Hong Kong's Hang Seng: +1.8%
• China's Shanghai Composite: +0.1%
• India's Sensex: +0.6%
• South Korea's Kospi: +4.1%
• Australia's ASX All Ordinaries: +2.0%

Major European indices trade on a mostly higher note while the U.K.'s FTSE (-0.3%) underperforms with financials contributing to the weakness. Speculation is on the rise that British Prime Minister Starmer could be ousted after his unimpressive visit to China and growing focus on his knowledge of Lord Mandelson's ties to Jeffrey Epstein. A weekend election in Spain resulted in a rightward shift with Prime Minister Sanchez's Socialist party seeing its support fall to 24.5% from 29.5%. In Portugal, Socialist Jose Seguro was elected president. 

• In economic data:
  • Eurozone's February Sentix Investor Confidence 4.2 (expected -0.2; last -1.8)
  • Swiss Q1 SECO Consumer Climate -30, as expected (last -37)

---Equity Markets---

• STOXX Europe 600: +0.1%
• Germany's DAX: +0.5%
• U.K.'s FTSE 100: -0.4%
• France's CAC 40: +0.1%
• Italy's FTSE MIB: +1.4%
• Spain's IBEX 35: +0.5%

The S&P 500 futures currently trade three points below fair value. 

There is a muted tone in the premarket this morning after a volatile week was capped by the major averages advancing over 2% on Friday. 

Six of the "magnificent seven" stocks are within 0.5% of their unchanged values in the premarket. Microsoft (MSFT 406.30, +5.16, +1.3%) is the exception, looking to take back more of the recent weakness that has seen the stock plummet nearly 17% since its earnings release on January 28.

The iShare Expanded Tech-Software ETF (IGV) is down 15% over the same time period amid increasing concerns that AI will disrupt the traditional software space.

Equity futures point to a lower opening this morning after a volatile previous week for stocks. The major averages incurred sizable losses earlier in the week as software and toher tech stocks sold off sharply, though there was a broad rebound on Friday that lifted the DJIA past the 50,000 mark to a new record high. 

Amazon (AMZN) and Alphabet (GOOG) faced weakness after issuing massive capital expenditure forecasts for the coming year, prompting return-on-investment concerns across the hyperscaler space that has largely defined a tough start to the year for some of the market's weightiest components. 

Friday's session also saw a stabilization in Bitcoin, which suffered a sharp retreat throughout the week. 

Headlines are relatively quiet this morning as the market gears up for another busy week of earnings that will see over 75 S&P 500 companies report earnings this week. 

There are no economic data releases of note scheduled for today.

In corporate news:

• The Trump administration is preparing new arms sales to Taiwan, which could jeopardize President Trump's planned visit to China in April, according to Financial Times. 
• Anthropic could raise $20 billion as soon as next week, according to Bloomberg. 
• Novo Nordisk (NVO 50.16, +2.53, +5.3%) trades sharply higher in the premarket after Hims & Hers (HIMS 18.38, -4.64, -20.2%) decided to pull its knockoff Wegovy pill after threatened legal action, according to CNBC. 
• Oracle (ORCL 146.65, +3.83, +2.7%) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at DA Davidson, with a target price of $180.

Reviewing overnight developments:

Equity indices in the Asia-Pacific region began the week on a higher note with Japan's Nikkei (+3.9%) soaring to a fresh record after a snap election resulted in supermajority for Prime Minister Takaichi's LDP even before factoring the seats that were won by LDP's coalition partner Ishin. Japan's Nikkei: +3.9%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng: +1.8%, China's Shanghai Composite: +0.1%, India's Sensex: +0.6%, South Korea's Kospi: +4.1%, Australia's ASX All Ordinaries: +2.0%.

In news:

• The win puts the prime minister in position to implement her economic agenda.
• Finance Minister Katayama attempted to assuage investors by saying that there will be no additional bond issuance to fund the prime minister's agenda.
• Elsewhere, Thailand's election produced a three-way deadlock that was largely expected.
• China has resumed some rare earth exports to Japan while Australia placed a 10% tariff on steel imports from China.

In economic data:

• Japan's December Overall Wage Income 2.4% yr/yr (expected 3.0%; last 1.7%). December Current Account surplus JPY2.70 trln (expected surplus of JPY2.95 trln; last surplus of JPY3.14 trln). January Bank Lending 4.5% yr/yr, as expected (last 4.3%) and January Economy Watchers Current Index 47.8 (expected 49.1; last 47.7)

Major European indices trade on a mostly higher note while the U.K.'s FTSE (-0.2%) underperforms with financials contributing to the weakness. STOXX Europe 600: +0.2%, Germany's DAX: +0.4%, U.K.'s FTSE 100: -0.2%, France's CAC 40: UNCH, Italy's FTSE MIB: +1.2%, Spain's IBEX 35: +0.5%.

In news:

• Speculation is on the rise that British Prime Minister Starmer could be ousted after his unimpressive visit to China and growing focus on his knowledge of Lord Mandelson's ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
• A weekend election in Spain resulted in a rightward shift with Prime Minister Sanchez's Socialist party seeing its support fall to 24.5% from 29.5%.
• In Portugal, Socialist Jose Seguro was elected president.

In economic data:

• Eurozone's February Sentix Investor Confidence 4.2 (expected -0.2; last -1.8)
• Swiss Q1 SECO Consumer Climate -30, as expected (last -37)

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market ended a volatile week on a sharply positive note, with a strong rebound across tech names and broad strength propelling the S&P 500 (+2.0%), Nasdaq Composite (+2.2%), and DJIA (+2.5%) higher.

Today's strength saw the DJIA notch fresh record highs, eclipsing and closing above the 50,000 mark for the first time. The S&P 500 reclaimed and closed above its 50-day moving average of 6,884.75. 

Small caps, semiconductors, and high-beta names were among the outperformers in today's rally, with the top-weighted information technology sector (+4.1%) finishing as the best performer across the nine S&P 500 sectors that notched gains.

Chipmaker names rebounded sharply from recent weakness, with the PHLX Semiconductor Index (+5.7%) closing the week with a modest gain following today's strength. Super Micro Computer (SMCI 34.38, +3.53, +11.44%) made back the entirety of yesterday's weakness and then some, while NVIDIA (NVDA 185.41, +13.53, +7.87%) was a mega-cap standout, moving back above its 50-day moving average (183.57). 

Microsoft (MSFT 401.14, +7.47, +1.90%) also garnered some buying interest off of recent lows, and the iShares GS Software ETF (+3.5%) notched a much-needed gain.

While there was certainly a technical element to the tech rebound given the size of this week's pullback, AI infrastructure names received an added tailwind from massive capital expenditure plans outlined by some of the market's largest constituents.

Amazon (AMZN 210.32, -12.37, -5.55%) forecast roughly $200 billion in capital spending for 2026, and while return-on-investment concerns-along with a modest EPS miss-initially weighed on the stock, the scale of the investment is broadly viewed as constructive for the AI ecosystem, particularly across semiconductors and related infrastructure providers. 

Additionally, Alphabet (GOOG 323.10, -8.23, -2.48%) issued a similar forecast of up to $185 billion with its earnings release earlier in the week. While those two names, along with some weakness in Meta Platforms (META 661.46, -8.75, -1.31%), pushed the communication services (-1.5%) and consumer discretionary (-0.7%) sectors lower, strength across the other mega-caps saw the Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (+2.2%) reclaim just under half of this week's losses. 

Strength was not just limited to mega-cap tech, as eight of the nine S&P 500 sectors that closed higher boasted gains wider than 1.0%. 

The industrials sector (+2.8%) was among the top performers, with airline names such as United Airlines (UAL 115.91, +9.82, +9.26%) and Delta Air Lines (DAL 75.30, +5.52, +7.91%) trading sharply higher. 

The financials sector (+1.8%) was supported by a rebound in Robinhood Markets (HOOD 82.82, +10.14, +13.95%) and Coinbase Global (COIN 165.12, +19.00, +13.00%) as Bitcoin prices stabilized and bounced off of recent lows, reclaiming the $70,000 mark. 

The health care sector (+1.8%) finished similarly, with broad strength outweighing Molina Healthcare's (MOH 131.56, -45.28, -25.61%) post-earnings plummet. 

Outside of the S&P 500, the Russell 2000 (+3.6%) and S&P Mid Cap 400 (+3.1%) outperformed amid the resurgence in growth stocks today. 

While improving risk sentiment helped the major averages finish the week on a higher note, it is worth noting that sizable losses earlier in the week left the S&P 500 (-0.1% week-to-date) and Nasdaq Composite (-1.8% week-to-date) with weekly declines. In contrast, the DJIA's (+2.5% week-to-date) push to fresh record highs highlights the ongoing bifurcation between value and growth stocks in early 2026.

Still, today's session underscores how quickly the broader market can advance when mega-cap and technology stocks regain momentum, and suggests they could reassert leadership as investors grow more comfortable with the scale of capital expenditure forecasts coming from mega-cap companies.

U.S. Treasuries had a quiet finish to a week that featured a volatile showing from equities, which contributed to a week of gains in most tenors. The 2-year note yield settled up one basis point to 3.51% (-3 basis points this week), and the 10-year note yield finished unchanged at 4.21% (-3 basis points this week). 

• S&P Mid Cap 400: +8.5% YTD
• Russell 2000: +7.6% YTD
• DJIA: +4.3% YTD
• S&P 500: +1.3% YTD
• Nasdaq Composite: -0.9% YTD

Reviewing today's data:

• February Univ. of Michigan Consumer Sentiment - Prelim 57.3 (Briefing.com consensus 54.3); Prior 56.4
  • The key takeaway from the report is that there was a surge in sentiment among consumers with the largest stock portfolios, whereas it remained at "dismal levels" for consumers without stock holdings. [Note: interviews for this release ended this past Monday, so with steep losses in many tech stocks since then, there is a good chance of a downward revision when the final report is released on February 20, barring a sustained rebound effort.
• Consumer credit increased by $24.0 billion in December (Briefing.com consensus: $8.4 billion) following an upwardly revised $4.7 billion increase (from $4.2 billion) in November.
  • The key takeaway from the report is that there was a healthy expansion in consumer credit in December, driven by solid pickups in both revolving and nonrevolving credit. The December expansion was the biggest since March 2025.