The good news for the S&P 500 index futures is that Tuesday’s session took place entirely in the green, the win streak was extended to six days and new all-time highs were made. The bad news is that most of the day’s early gains were given up.
Most of the initial gains came from a rally straight off the Globex open, with the bulls testing resistance at Monday’s high. That resistance held all the way until the regular session opened just below that level. The bulls were then able to break through resistance to make new all-time highs, only briefly.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s testimony to Congress beginning at 10:00am EDT introduced some volatility to the markets, as the index futures briefly made a new high, only to swiftly sell off after that. The bulk of Powell’s comments indicated that the labor market has cooled, along with the usual ‘progress to 2% inflation goal is being made’ and that decisions are made meeting by meeting, dependent on data. Market participants are expecting more volatility as he continues his testimony on Wednesday at the same time.
As the testimony continued, support was found once the index futures reached the 5630 area and several rallies were attempted off that level. After the lunch hour, the bulls returned for one final round of buying, but were unable to sustain a bid above Monday’s high. After peaking at 5645.75, sellers took hold and initiated a swift selloff, taking the index futures swiftly back to intraday lows. The remainder of the afternoon action took place near those lows, chopping around the 5630 area, but remaining in the green.
The session concluded in the lower third of the day’s range at a new all-time closing high of 5631.25, holding onto a gain of 6 handles.
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) found itself back as the biggest winner among top components. The issue continued its recent momentum, advancing by $9.39 or 3.71% to close at $262.33 for the day.
That performance was over 37 times better than the cash index’s advance of 0.10%.
On the other hand, the biggest loser was Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT). For the day, the tech giant declined by $6.70 or 1.44% to close at $459.54.
