The major averages hold solid midday gains with the Nasdaq (+1.7%) trading comfortably ahead of the S&P 500 (+1.0%) and Dow (+0.7%).
The first half of the Tuesday session has seen the S&P 500 advance to its best level in over five weeks after reclaiming its 200-day moving average (4473), which offered resistance yesterday. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq has reached a five-week high, recapturing its 50-day moving average (13830) in the process.
Ten sectors display midday gains with four groups up at least 1.0%. The communication services sector (+2.1%) leads as it rebounds from yesterday’s underperformance while other influential groups like technology (+1.4%), financials (+1.6%), and consumer discretionary (+1.6%) also trade ahead of the broader market.
Only one component of the communication services sector trades in the red while Twitter ( TWTR 38.64, +1.20, +3.2%) and Alphabet ( GOOG 2806.71, +77.14, +2.9%) lead.
Elsewhere, NIKE ( NKE 133.96, +3.77, +2.9%) has contributed to a good showing from the discretionary sector after beating Q3 expectations.
The financials sector has been lifted back into positive territory on the Q1 leaderboard (+1.0%) as Treasury yields continue rising to fresh multi-year highs with the 10-yr yield up almost six basis points at 2.37%.
Meanwhile, the only other sector that shows a Q1 gain is today’s biggest laggard. Energy is down 1.5%, narrowing its Q1 gain to 35.5% alongside a pullback in crude oil. WTI crude is down $1.86, or 1.7%, at $110.26/bbl, responding to reports that the EU is unlikely to ban imports of Russian oil after all.