In another day of new all-time highs, the propensity for the S&P 500 index futures to finish the week on the highs or lows played out (in favor of the bulls) during Friday’s session.
Bulls couldn’t quite break through resistance at Thursday’s close during overnight trading, as market participants seemed to be cautiously waiting for November’s US Employment Report to be released at 8:30am EST. The data came in either at or slightly above expectations, including 227,000 jobs added (vs. 214,000 exp.), a 4.2% unemployment rate (vs. 4.2% exp.) and hourly wages increasing by 0.4% (vs. 0.3% exp.). Following the report, sellers briefly took the index futures slightly lower, which was followed by a wave of buyers once they had a chance to digest the news. The index futures rocketed back up into the green, chopping above Thursday’s close before the opening bell.
Bulls remained in the driver’s seat once the regular session commenced, rallying straight up to a new all-time high of 6111. At that point, buying momentum slowed to a halt. After some chop just below that level, sellers took the index futures back below the premarket high. The chop intensified as bears tested support near unchanged, but the bulls firmly held support at that level. For the remainder of the day, the action was mostly contained within the premarket high and Thursday’s close.
As the close neared, the bulls slowly added to their gains, but were unable to make significant progress. The session concluded above the day’s midpoint at a new all-time closing high (by half a handle) at 6099, gaining a marginal 10.25 handles. For the week, that makes for a gain of 47.50 handles or 0.78%.
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) emerged as the biggest gainer among top components for the second day in a row. Continuing its recent momentum, the EV maker went on to make new 52-week highs, advancing by $19.73 or 5.34% to close at $389.22.
That performance was over 28 times better than the cash index’s advance of 0.19%.
On the other hand, the biggest loser was NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA). For the day, the chip designer declined by $2.62 or 1.81% to close at $142.44.
