The weakness in the S&P 500 index futures seen Friday bled into Monday’s session, starting with a lower open near the premarket lows. The “buy-the-dippers” showed up off the open, sustaining a bid above the premarket low, which led the index futures slightly higher, but still in the red.
An array of comments from Federal Reserve officials throughout the morning failed to introduce any significant market-moving insights, leaving the futures chopping about. Although the bulls ruled the energy sector, they also managed to keep the index futures above the opening level but their efforts fell short of reversing the day’s fortunes with the index unable to shift into positive territory.
The afternoon saw the bears regain control in the final two hours, applying downward pressure from the intraday high. Sell-off in the final 15 minutes took the index futures back down to where they opened, closing the day down 15 handles at 5278.25.
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) stood out as Monday’s standout performer among the index’s top components, climbing $1.80 or 1.05% to close at $172.63.
That advance was just over one percent better than the cash index’s decline of 0.28%.
Conversely, Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) sold off the most among top components, shedding $5.88 or -1.37% to finish at $422.86.
