Once again, the premarket turned the tide in the index in a big way. After peaking in Monday’s premarket session around 4:00 AM EST, the index did the exact same thing Tuesday morning at roughly the same time.
At its peak, the index was higher by 10 handles, but by the opening bell it was over 15 handles in the red. Early on, the index made one feeble attempt to get near the close, but came up well shy. The selling intensified just after 10 AM EST when the August jobs opening remained robust, signaling a still strong labor market.
Once the index breached the premarket low, sellers became more aggressive and buyers were nowhere to be found. Last week’s low stemmed the tide momentarily, but when that gave way for good, the index had another leg lower.
After falling into an area of limited daily support, index neared the low, but caught a bid in the final 45 minutes. As a result, the index was able to put some distance between the low and the close, which was lower by 59.50 handles at the closing price of 4264.75.
Among the top components of the index, only one survived the carnage, Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM). The issue was barely able to snap a three-day losing streak by adding $0.21 or 0.18% at the closing price of $115.75.
This performance was much better than the cash index that declined by 1.4%.
The worst performer of the top components was Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN). In addition to weakness in the broad market, the company has come under more scrutiny from its pricing practices by the FTC. For the session, the issue declined by $4.74 or 3.67% at the closing price of $124.46. The issue has been in the red in 12 of its last 14 sessions, with one minor up day and a flat session.
