Following last Tuesday’s major rally off the better-than-expected October Consumer Price Index reading, the S&P 500 index took a breather. Although it still grinded higher, it traded in a narrow 40-point range to end the week.
On Monday, the consolidation period was resolved to the upside in a major fashion. While spending almost the entire premarket in the green, the index went red briefly off the open of the regular session before catching a bid.
Once the index surpassed the pair of highs from last week at the 4540 area, the pace of the rally accelerated. Heading into the final hour, offers were scant and the market continued to make new highs on the day.
Finally, with forty minutes remaining, buyers backed off as the index peaked at 4571 and tapered off into the close. The end result was a solid gain of 34.75 handles at the closing price of 4562.25.
Among the top components, NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) was the biggest winner. Ahead of its Q3 report after the close on Tuesday, everyone wants to be long or at least covering their short. For the session, the issue made a new all-time high and all-time close high adding $11.22 or 2.28%.
This performance was much better than the cash index’s advance of 0.87%.
In contrast, Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) was the biggest loser. It was unfazed by a $1+ rally in Crude Oil and declined by $0.46 or 0.44%.
