At Friday’s close, on the lows for the week, and the lowest level since late March, the bears were in full control. Monday’s robust rally and the mild follow-through on Tuesday, coupled with Wednesday’s rally, has them back into hibernation. The question remains: is this for good, or only temporary?
What ailed the market over the last few months, the bond market, came to life during premarket trading. The catalyst was the Feds lowering its borrowing expectations for the October to December quarter to $776 billion, $76 billion lower than the estimate it gave on July 31.
That instigated a higher opening, in which the bulls were in control of the entire regular session as the index never went red. The early morning rally was faded, but the retreat found nothing but buyers.
Whatever Chairman Powell said or not, and he said nothing new, the bulls went on the offensive. Heading into the final fifteen minutes, the index peaked at 4264.75 and was subject to some mild profit taking.
As a result, the index backed off the high for the session, but still added 43.75 handles at the closing price of 4256.
Amongst the top components of the index, Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) was the biggest winner. Investors took the lead from Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD), which had a monster rally following its Q3 report. For the session, the issue added $15.30 or 3.8% at the closing price of $423.25.
That was over two percent better than the cash index’s advance of 1.05%.
Conversely, UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) was the only, therefore the biggest loser of the top components. The issue was hindered by Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM), which announced a Q3 beat on both the top and bottom lines, but issued cautious guidance. For the session, the issue declined by $3.96 or 0.74% at the closing price of $531.60.
