Even as market participants wait for the ever important CPI data being released Wednesday morning at 8:30am EDT, the buy-the-dippers still won the day in the S&P 500 index futures. In addition to the inflation data in the morning, the FOMC interest-rate decision and following press conference by Fed Chair Jerome Powell is expected to introduce some volatility tomorrow afternoon.
Tuesday’s premarket session was ruled by the bears after the bulls failed to maintain a bid above Monday’s close overnight. After the opening bell rang, the bears still held control and were determined to test the bulls’ resolve. The bears were able to breach Monday’s low, but not by too much, reaching 5334.50. That dip was quickly bought and the bulls began their climb back up, maintaining a steady rally until 11:00am EDT when resistance started to accumulate.
Support was tested once again, this time at the premarket low in the 5350.00 area. Once it was clear support would hold, the bull rally was back on. The bulls soon had the index futures trading back in the green and approaching all-time highs. It wasn’t until the final 10 minutes of the regular session that the bulls were able push past sellers in a last-minute rally and test resistance at the all-time high.
The session concluded just off the intraday high at a new all-time closing high of 5384, gaining a modest 12.75 handles. In after-hours trading, buyers were able to push slightly past the previous all-time high, peaking at 5386.25.
Among the top components of the index, the biggest winner by far was Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), which took the driver’s seat for the day. On Monday, the company announced new AI features coming to its devices later this year, and also benefited from a couple analyst upgrades on Tuesday. The tech titan was able to advance by $14.03 or 7.26% to close at $207.15 for the day, establishing new all-time and all-time closing highs.
That performance was over 30 times better than the cash index’s advance of 0.24%.
On the other hand, the biggest loser ended up being JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM). For the day, the issue declined by $5.24 or 2.63% to close at $194.36.
