After making new all-time highs earlier in the week, the S&P 500 index futures wrapped up the positive week with a very choppy options-expiration-Friday.
Thursday’s closing level soon became the midpoint of Friday’s range as the bulls and bears started their tug-of-war overnight and into the premarket hours. After crossing back into the red for the nth time just before the open, the bulls were able to bring the index futures back up for a positive start to the regular session, but only by a few ticks.
The opening action set the tone for the day, as a range was soon established between the premarket high and low, straddling Thursday’s closing level. For much of the intraday session, the premarket high stood as a solid resistance level, and the premarket low as more of a support area. It wasn’t until the penultimate hour that the bears were able to breach the premarket low, bringing the index futures closer to the 5300 area. However, the buy-the-dippers came to the rescue as the low (5305.75) was soon bought up, igniting a late-day rally.
The small bull rally continued into the final hour, but ran into selling pressure at the premarket high (5326). Though the bears tried to fight back, the bulls ultimately cleared the premarket high during the closing minutes, even managing to close just above that level. The day concluded very near the highs at 5327.25, adding 7 handles to the index futures. For the week, that makes for a healthy gain of 81 handles or 1.54%.
Among the top components of the S&P 500, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) emerged as the biggest gainer, benefitting from Chinese authorities easing restrictions on cross-border data sharing from “intelligent and connected vehicles.” The EV maker was able to advance by $2.62 or 1.50% to close at $177.46 for the day.
That performance outpaced the cash index’s advance of 0.14% over tenfold.
Conversely, the biggest loser for the day was NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA), as traders and investors adjusted their positions ahead of the company’s upcoming earnings report, set to be released at 4:20pm EDT on Wednesday, May 22. For Friday’s session, the chipmaker declined by $18.80 or 1.99% to close at $924.79.
