In premarket trading and early on in Monday’s regular session, the S&P 500 index followed through on its winning day from Friday. Off the opening bell, the index was able to breach Friday/Last Week’s high, but the rally stalled nearly eight handles above Friday’s high (5154.25 vs. 5146.50) and reversed course.
Buyers made several defenses of Friday’s closing price (5131.50), but gave way just as the final hour of the session commenced. The ensuing decline found support well above Friday’s low (5104.50), only reaching 5118.75 and began to rebound.
The sharp rebound off the intraday low took the index past unchanged and paused momentarily. However, another surge of buyers came in during the last fifteen minutes of the session, lifting the index to close well off its low and in the upper portion of the range for the day.
The end result was a solid gain of 15 handles at the closing price of 5147. That marks the highest close in the index since April 12, which ended that day at 5167.50, which marked the beginning of a six-day streak resulting in the recent low for the move at 4953.50.
Among the top components of the index, Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was the biggest winner by a wide margin. All the issue needed was a surprise visit to China by Elon Musk to bolster its FSD capabilities in the region to ignite a major rally.
The issue, which has been higher in five of its last six sessions, tacked on $25.76 or 15.31% to close at $194.05. That brings its post-earnings gains (six sessions) to an astounding $52 or nearly 37%.
That performance dwarfed the cash index’s gain of 0.32% by just over 15%.
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) sharply retreated from it’s all-time high and closing-high posted on Friday and was the biggest loser of the top components. A healthy round of profit-taking nudged the issue lower by $5.79 or 3.34% at the closing price of $167.99.
