Many investors that follow the market adage, “Sell in May and go away”, got a head start by selling in April, especially on the final day of the month.
The S&P 500 futures index had investors in a daze after Thursday’s price action and waited until 10 AM EST for the knockout punch. Following opposite earnings reports from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) with a Q2 beat and a Q1 miss from Amazon Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), investors were torn. However, when Apple’s early morning rally failed, the floodgates opened.
Once the premarket low was breached, bids were scarce and any rallies were short-lived. When the index failed to 4200 during lunchtime, it got ugly. The index cut through daily lows from earlier in the week like a hot knife through butter.
For the session, the futures index was lower by 156.00, and for the month by 403.25, at 4127.50, a test of the February low (4093.25) seems like a foregone conclusion.
The only beacon of good news is that there were some after-hours bargain hunters as the index crept higher to end the after-hours session at 4137.
The biggest winner of the top components was the smallest loser, Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA). For the session, the issue declined by $6.75 or 0.8 percent to close at $870.76.
That was over four times better than the cash index’s decline of 3.63 percent.
The biggest loser of the top components by a wide margin was Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN). On its worst day since 2006, the issue skidded $406.30 or 14 percent to close at 2485.63.
PreMarket Prep Interview With David Trainer Of New Constructs, LLC
The importance of fundamental analysis is discussed along with a few bullish calls. Read more here.
