Wednesday’s session had disaster written all over it following Microsoft Corp’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) cautious comments during its Q4 earnings conference call. The decline from the premarket low followed through in a big way off the opening, with the S&P index futures at one point being over 70 handles in the red.
However, the bulls awakened shortly after Microsoft found a tradeable intraday bottom to lean on. Step-up buyers took command of the index late morning and into the afternoon. So much so, that the index reached unchanged before tapering off in the last hour of the session.
Once again, the bulls would not relent and nudged the index to basically a scratch session with a closing price of 4032.00 vs. Tuesday’s close of 4032.75.
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) rebounded modestly from Monday’s post earnings dip and was the biggest winner of the top components of the index. For the session, the issue gained $1.20 or 0.71% to close at $169.51.
That was better than the cash index which managed a 0.02% loss.
More government scrutiny for Alphabet Inc. (GOOG or GOOGL) caused it to be the biggest loser of the top components of the index. For the session, the issue tumbled by $2.48 or 2.5% to close at $96.73.
