In this market environment, good news is good news and bad news is good news. Even though February’s reading of the Consumer Price Index, the primary gauge to track inflation, increased to 3.2% from a year ago and 0.4% in February, investors did not care.
In fact, after the premarket gains evaporated in seconds following the release, the retreat did not last very long. The bears made an attempt off the opening bell to incite a sustained retreat, but were rebuffed.
In a familiar fashion, the index found support just ahead the premarket low and staged a dramatic rebound. Once the index breached the high of the open, the pace of the rally accelerated.
A noon swoon took the index roughly 30 handles off its session high, but the bulls stepped up once again. In fact, the index went to make a new high for the session and posted a new all-time closing high for the June contract.
The end result was a gain of 55.50 handles at the closing price of 5241.25, eclipsing the former all-time closing high of 5225.25.
High-beta NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) was by far the biggest winner of the top components. The issue ended a two-day losing streak by gaining $61.39 or 7.2% at the closing price of $919.13. That is shy of its all-time closing price of $926.69.
That performance was just over six percent better than the cash index’s gain of 1.12%.
Conversely, Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO) resumed its post-earnings slide and was the biggest loser of the top components. For the session, the issue posted a modest decline of $1.24 or just under one tenth of one percent, closing at $1291.88.
