Little Change in Early Action

Today 9:40 AM ET (Briefing.com)

The major averages began the session not far below their flat lines as five sectors displayed early gains, while five opened lower.

On the upside, consumer discretionary (+0.2%), energy (+0.5%), and utilities (+0.7%) have taken the early lead, while technology (-0.6%), health care (-0.3%), and telecom services (-3.1%) lag.

With participants receiving a handful of quarterly reports from the biotech space, the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 233.31, -1.41) holds an early loss of 0.5% after Amgen (AMGN 116.01, -3.29) and Biogen (BIIB 307.98, +0.78) missed expectations, while Gilead Sciences (GILD 75.04, +2.18) beat.

Also of note, the weakness in the telecom services sector is due to a 4.1% loss in the shares of AT&T (T 34.81, -1.48) after the company reported above-consensus results.

The New Home Sales report for March (Briefing.com consensus 455K) will be released at 10:00 ET.