After a flurry of economic data was released Thursday morning, the bulls took the S&P 500 index futures back to where the month began, establishing a three-day win streak and ending higher in five of the last six sessions.
Overnight and into premarket hours, the bulls were able to give the index futures a slight uplift from Wednesday’s close. At 8:30am EDT, many macroeconomic data points were released, including last week’s jobless claims coming in at 227,000 compared to an expected 234,000, and July’s US retail sales coming in way above expectations at 1.0% compared to 0.3% exp. In short, the bulls took the data as a good sign and instigated an immediate rally that would last most of the day.
The regular session began about 55 handles in the green, and after some sellers took advantage of the pop, the rally resumed once again. Buying continued at a fairly steady pace until the afternoon when it slowed down in the 5560’s. Before the close, the bulls made a push to a new intraday high of 5571.75, at which point profit-takers and bears came in to take advantage of the rally.
Buyers were able to prevent a close below 5560 in the final five minutes of the session, bringing the index futures back up near the day’s high. The session concluded at 5567.50, gaining a stellar 90.50 handles.
Among the top components of the index, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) emerged as the biggest gainer. The EV maker was able to advance by $12.76 or 6.34% to close at $214.14 for the day.
That performance was over three times better than the cash index’s advance of 1.71%.
There were no losers among top components, therefore the smallest winner was Eli Lilly And Co (NYSE: LLY). For the day, the healthcare company gained $2.22 or 0.24% to close at $931.58.
