The S&P 500 index futures have put in place its second four-day winning streak this month. In fact, the index has been higher in nine of the last eleven sessions. Over that time period, the index has added over 450 handles, or 11%.
Once again, the rally was news-driven as the talks in Ukraine towards de-escalation in the war were reported to be going in the right direction. By the opening of the regular session, the index was already in the green by over 40 handles. A round of panic buying from the open took the index to an unsustainable level. As a result, the index had a significant decline but found support well above the premarket low (4565.25), only reaching 4581.25.
Once the index stabilized over 4590 just before 2:00 PM EST, it marched higher to make a new high for the session (4631) heading into the final 15 minutes. For the session, the index added 57.50 handles to close at 4625.50. There was some minor selling pressure in the after-hours session which made the last after-hours print five handles lower at 4622.
Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) was the biggest gainer of the top components of the index. The issue was higher for the fourth day in a row adding $6.27 or 2.8%.
That was over double the cash index’ gain of 1.26%.
For the first time in a long time, Berkshire Hathaway Class B (NYSE: BRK.B) was the biggest loser of the components. For the session, it declined $4.45 or 1.2% to close at $355.12.
