“Sell the rip” continues to be the theme playing out in the S&P 500 index futures, and was especially the case in Thursday’s session with the bulls unable to hold onto any gains.
The index futures were able to stay in the green during the overnight and premarket hours, but the bears had other plans once the regular session began. A sharp selloff ensued off the open, slicing through the premarket low. Support was soon found above Wednesday’s low and the bulls were (surprisingly) able to instigate a decent rally. The rally pushed past the premarket high, but fell short of the 5100 handle, where the bears were ready to regain control. A steady selloff began to take hold, accelerating once the lunch hour began.
The selloff continued to make new lows for the day and week, but not by much. Most of the afternoon’s action chopped around the 5050 area, near Wednesday’s low. The bulls tried once again to instigate a late-day rally, but were quite unsuccessful. The index momentarily touched unchanged in the final 15 minutes, but a sharp selloff followed that took the index futures back to the lower end of its intraday range. The session concluded lower by 13.25 handles at 5049.
There were a few winners among the top components of the index, the biggest being Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META). The social media company was able to advance by $7.63 or 1.54% to close at $501.80 for the day.
That performance was still over one percent better than the cash index’s decline of 0.21%.
With Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) out of the top components, the biggest loser among the heavyweights was Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ: AVGO). The issue, along with other chip stocks, declined on news of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (NYSE: TSM) reporting a less optimistic outlook for semiconductor growth in 2024. For the day, Broadcom declined by $23.64 or 1.84% to close at $1258.99.
