Dow +85.95 at 32803.46, Nasdaq +99.54 at 12025.77, S&P +22.92 at 4052.00
The Nasdaq and S&P 500 trade near session highs while the Dow lags somewhat.
S&P 500 financial sector (flat) briefly slipped into negative territory recently. Charles Schwab (SCHW 53.15, -2.05, -3.7%) is a top laggard there after it was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
First Republic Bank (FRC 13.92, -0.33, -2.3%) is another top laggard with no specific news catalyst to account for the weakness.
Mega cap stocks leadership role recently as evidenced by the slight outperformance of the Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (MGK), up 0.9% versus a 0.7% gain in the S&P 500.
CBOE Volatility Index took a sharp turn higher around the time that the stock market opened, up 1.7% or 0.32 to 19.45.