The bad news for Friday’s session is the S&P 500 index futures fell for a sixth day in a row in the worst week seen since September 2023. The good news is that it somewhat distanced itself from the lows and has still held onto January’s gains.
Overnight, reports of explosions from a possible drone strike in Iran prompted market participants to sell the index futures, eventually bottoming near the 4960 area around midnight EST. Soon enough, reports of Iran’s nuclear facilities remaining unharmed had market participants buying the dip, bringing the index futures all the way back up to unchanged by the time the regular session was about to begin.
The overnight rally couldn’t maintain much momentum past the open, as the bears took back the reins to drive the index futures back into the red. The story was similar to days earlier in the week, as sharp and steady selloffs were interrupted by a bull rally every so often. Support for the first rally was found near the 5000 handle during the lunch hour, but the resulting gains were soon lost in the afternoon. By the final hour, the bears had the index futures testing the 4990 area, but support held strong and most subsequent action took place between 4990-5010.
The bulls were able to regain some ground in the final 15 minutes, with the session concluding at 5003.75, lower by 45.25 handles. For the week, that makes for a total loss of 163.75 handles or 3.17%.
Out of the two winners among top components of the index, JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) emerged as the biggest gainer. The banking behemoth was able to advance by $4.55 or 2.51% to close at $185.80 for the day, being aided by further positive bank earnings reports released Friday morning.
That performance was over three percent better than the cash index’s decline of 0.87%.
The biggest loser by far was NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA). For the day, the chipmaker declined by $84.71 or 10.00% to close at $762.00, among growing concerns and overall weakness in the AI and chip industries.
