Midday Mega-caps doing the heavy lifting
The S&P 500 is up 0.5% on the back of the mega-cap stocks, which are fueling the outperformance of the Nasdaq Composite (+1.5%). The Dow Jones Industrial Average (unch) and Russell 2000 (unch), which are more cyclically-oriented, are roughly unchanged. T
he Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (MGK 239.50, +3.79, +1.6%), like the Nasdaq 100, is up 1.6% while the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP 158.12, -0.10, -0.1%) is down 0.1%.
From a sector perspective, eight of the 11 S&P 500 sectors are trading lower with losses ranging from 0.4% (materials) to 1.4% (utilities). Conversely, the information technology (+1.5%), communication services (+2.2%), and consumer discretionary (+1.7%) sectors are up more than 1.0%. Growth stocks in general appear to be catching a bid after Elon Musk disclosed a 9.2% passive stake in Twitter (TWR 50.45, +11.11, +28.3%). TWTR is up 28% on the news, which has stoked a bargain-hunting mindset in growth stocks that have underperformed this year.