During the first four days of the week, the S&P 500 index futures were range bound in a narrow, roughly 50-handle zone (4550-4600). However, on Friday, the index established support above the lower end of the range and surpassed the top of the range.
Instead of bad news being bad news, good news was good news, that being the nation’s unemployment rate fell to 3.7%. This reinforces the notion that the economy is still on sure footing after the recent sharp rise in interest rates this year.
The narrative that this would delay potential rate cuts was largely ignored. Along these lines, investors are assuming that the strong jobs numbers will be greeted with open arms. The index still opened slightly in the red for the regular session, but quickly found a bid and began to move. Favorable data on the US consumer from the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey instigated another burst higher and a new high for the move.
The bears’ pre-lunch attack to derail the rally went just beyond unchanged and the index resumed its march higher. The index peaked twenty minutes ahead of the close and retreated slightly to end the day.
The end result was a gain of 18 handles at the closing price of 4607.50. That makes the index slightly positive for the week.
Among the top components, NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) was the biggest winner. The volatile week for the issue ended with a gain of $9.10 or 1.95% at the closing price of $475.06.
That was over one percent better than the cash index’s advance of 0.41%.
On the opposite end of the top components was Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), reversing its role from Thursday and was the biggest loser. Investors began to have mixed feelings about the company’s rollout of its Gemini AI model. For the session, the issue declined by $1.81 or 1.31% at the closing price of $136.64.
