Friday’s bullish momentum was interrupted by the outbreak of war in the Middle East, which had the index deep in the red for all of the premarket session. However, the bulls seized on that weakness and turned a 40+ handle loss into nearly a 30-handle gain.
In addition to energy stocks getting a boost from Crude Oil, investors that missed out on Friday’s rally in mega cap technology did not want to miss on another one.
The rebound off the premarket low gathered momentum once the index breached the premarket high and barely paused at last week’s high made on Friday.
The index peaked heading in the final hour, but the retreat off the intraday high was shallow. In the final minutes of the session, the bulls resurfaced which enabled the index to close just off the highs for the session.
The end result was a gain of 27.25 handles at the closing price of 4368.75.
Among the top components of the index, Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) was the biggest winner. The issue followed the Crude Oil market, following the unrest in the Middle East over the weekend. For the session, the issue added $3.75 or 3.5% at the closing price of $110.92.
That performance was nearly three percent better than the cash index’s advance of 0.63%.
Conversely, Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) was the biggest loser. The issue was under selling pressure since the after-hours session on Friday, when Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) announced it was working on its own AI chip. For the session, the issue declined $4.89 or 1.06%.
