After two mild down days to start the week, the S&P 500 Index ended the week on a three-day winning streak. While a good portion of Friday’s gains were made during premarket trading, the index did make a new high for the week, over 40 handles higher than last week’s high (4467.50 vs. 4421.50).
For the session, the index added 33.75 handles to close at 4462.75. For the week, the index added 80.50 handles.
It was a broad-based rally amongst the top components of the index, with Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) being the only one in red.
While the index was able to push through the premarket high (4454.50), it was unable to reach its September 27 high (4472), only reaching 4467.50. In the final hour of the session, the index became choppy and more volatile as investors jockeyed for position for the expiration of not only the weekly options but for the October series as well. The reason being, with today being the 15th, it’s the earliest possible date for a monthly expiration of options, with October 1, being a Friday, making this Friday, the third Friday of the month.
By far, the biggest winner of the top components was Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), which finally decided to participate in the recent rally. For the session, the tech giant gained $109.16 or 3.3% to close at $3409.02. That far exceeded the cash index’s gain of 0.75%.
As mentioned, Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) was the only loser of the top components. For the session, the issue declined $3.77 or 1.1% to close at $324.76.
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