Thursday’s session in the S&P 500 index futures continued the pattern observed recently, with the market breaking out of a range, then consolidating or chopping around within a tight band. The day’s trading was characterized by a notably narrow intraday range of just 15 handles, with the index maintaining its stance above the 5000 mark throughout the session.
The release of initial jobless claims for the last week at 8:30am EST, reporting at 218k versus the 221k anticipated, provided a modest uplift in the premarket. However, this did not set a definitive direction for the index futures, and the lack of clear trend persisted through the opening and remained the theme for the day.
Trading remained bounded by the premarket lows and overnight highs for the majority of the session, until the final 30 minutes saw a shift. The bears applied selling pressure, pulling the index down from fresh intraday highs. Nonetheless, a resilient push from the bulls in the final minute led to a spike to a new high of 5020, showcasing a nearly seven-handle rally.
Despite this last-minute surge, the gains were partially relinquished, closing the day slightly up by 2.50 handles at 5017.75.
The session was also influenced by mixed earnings reports, with Arm Holdings, plc (NASDAQ: ARM) notably surging nearly 48% following its earnings announcement, highlighting the impact of AI’s popularity on its revenue projections.
Among the top components of the index, Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE: LLY) stood out as the biggest winner, achieving a new all-time closing high of $735.68, with an increase of $10.30 or 1.42%.
This gain notably exceeded the cash index’s marginal increase of 0.04%.
Conversely, NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) faced a slight setback, becoming the session’s biggest loser with a decrease of $4.58 or 0.65%, closing at $696.41.
