Though the S&P 500 index futures didn’t quite finish right at the highs or lows, Friday’s session certainly ended closer to the lows. In addition, support and resistance have been reaffirmed at last week’s high and low, as this week’s action was entirely contained within those bounds.
Bulls ruled the action overnight, partially spurred on by a stellar reaction to Broadcom Inc’s (NASDAQ: AVGO) latest earnings report (more on that below). By the opening bell, bulls had the index futures trading well in the green near the weekly pivot area. Despite their attempts to keep the rally going post-open, sellers came back with a vengeance.
Bears soon wiped out all the overnight gains, and once the premarket low was breached (along with Thursday’s close), bids were swiftly taken out. Bulls finally found their footing near Tuesday’s low, which was also near last week’s low. For the remainder of the day, the action turned to chop and whipsaw moves between unchanged and Tuesday’s low.
With bulls and bears fighting for dominance until the very end, the session concluded below the day’s midpoint at 6055.50, losing 5.25 handles. For the week, that marks a decline of 43.50 handles or 0.71%. Looking ahead to next week, market action will surely be influenced by Wednesday’s FOMC interest-rate decision and following press conference, as well as PCE data being released Friday.
After reporting earnings Thursday evening, Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ: AVGO) easily emerged as the biggest gainer among top components. Following a bottom-line beat, strong forecasts, and many raised price targets, the chip designer rocketed up to new all-time highs by $44.14 or 24.43% to close at $224.80 for the day.
That performance was much, much better than the cash index’s scratch decline of 0.02%.
Heading the opposite direction of the other top chip issue, the biggest loser was NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA). For the day, the chip designer declined by $3.09 or 2.25% to close at $134.25.
