The S&P 500 index futures marched upward into the 5800 handle during Thursday’s session, but it couldn’t close above that level without the bulls and bears each putting up a fight.
With not much resistance in sight, the index futures melted up overnight to make new all-time highs. At 8:30am EDT, a slew of economic data was released, including last week’s jobless claims slightly below expectations, August’s durable-goods orders that were above expectations, and an in-line Q2 GDP revision. The benign data didn’t spark much movement in the index futures, but the bulls were able to mark a new all-time high of 5830 before the regular session opened.
Soon after the day’s Fedspeak got underway, the regular session began just under the premarket high. It didn’t take long for the bears to initiate a choppy selloff that ended up erasing most of the overnight gains. Support seemed to initially be found in the 5790’s, but the index broke through in the afternoon. The dip briefly touched the premarket (Globex) low, which coincided with Wednesday’s close, and buy-the-dippers stepped right in to salvage some gains.
The last couple hours of trading action were spent around the 5800 area and the session concluded nearly perfectly at the day’s midpoint at a new all-time closing high of 5804.50, gaining 25.50 handles. Market participants now have PCE index and other economic data to look forward to, being released Friday morning at 8:30am EDT.
Among the top components of the index, Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ: AVGO) emerged as the biggest gainer. The chip designer trended in sympathy with Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MU), who released an upbeat forecast that boosted AI-related issues. Broadcom was able to advance by $2.57 or 1.46% to close at $178.09 for the day.
That performance was over three times better than the cash index’s advance of 0.40%.
On the other hand, the biggest loser ended up as Eli Lilly And Co (NYSE: LLY). For the day, the healthcare company declined by $14.75 or 1.60% to close at $909.32.
