In a Halloween market spectacle, the bulls managed to scare off the bears, albeit not without a struggle. Today’s market action gave way to both bulls and bears, with the release of a mixed bag of Q3 earnings and economic data.
Premarket trading in the S&P 500 futures index saw a recovery of some losses from overnight, even testing the highs from Monday’s session. However, the release of the employment cost index report at 8:30 AM ET, showcasing a rise for Q3 (within the expected 1.1%), led to a momentary retreat by the bulls, nudging the index downwards through and past the open, breaching the premarket lows.
The consumer confidence index unveiled at 10 AM ET depicted a dip to a five-month low, fueled by inflation worries, rising interest rates, and Middle Eastern tensions. For the bulls, the silver lining was the figure still surpassed expectations.
The S&P 500 futures oscillated around unchanged, until post-lunch hours witnessed a resurgence of bulls. The index experienced a steady climb for the remainder of the session, culminating with an upswing of 26.50 handles to close at 4212.25, just shy of the day’s high.
After a dismal performance yesterday, Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) rebounded, emerging as the day’s biggest winner among the index’s top components. A courtroom victory pertaining to a fatal crash involving its Autopilot software buoyed the stock, propelling it by 1.76% or $3.48, to a close of $200.84.
That performance nudged past the cash index’s gain of 0.64% by just over a percent.
Conversely, NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) found itself as the biggest loser among the top components. Investors were found scaling back positions before month-end and ahead of rival Advanced Micro Devices’ (NASDAQ: AMD) earnings announcement after today’s close. This pushed NVIDIA lower by 0.93% or $3.81, closing at $407.80.
