Friday’s action in the S&P 500 index futures was somewhat of a microcosm of what often happened earlier in the week. Not only were dips bought, but new all-time highs were made, plus the regular session concluded near where it began.
Overnight and into premarket hours, both the bulls and bears had their chance as the index futures floated above and below Thursday’s close. Just before 8:30am EDT, when May’s US Employment report was set to be released, the index was in the green once again. Among the report highlights, over 272,000 jobs were added last month versus the expected 190,000, but the unemployment rate rose to 4.0% for the first time in over 2 years. Once the report was released, buyers briefly stepped in to take the index futures to a new all-time high of 5380, but were quickly overcome by sellers in a 50+ handle swoon. Support was eventually found at 5329 as the dip-buyers started to step in.
By the regular session open, the index futures were back to trading around mid-range on the day in the 5350’s. After it was clear support would hold below Thursday’s low, the bulls took back the stage. Profit-takers and bears fought back near the premarket high, but the bulls were able to push past that level just after lunch, marking a new all-time high of 5385.50. Unfortunately, they were not able to hang onto those gains for long. The final two hours saw a battle between bulls and bears, with support just barely holding in the 5351 area.
The day ultimately concluded just above the regular session open at 5355.75, lower by 8.25 handles. For the week, that makes for a gain of 60.25 handles or 1.14%.
Among the top components of the index, Eli Lilly And Co (NYSE: LLY) emerged as the biggest gainer, being helped along by a price target upgrade from Jefferies. The healthcare company was able to advance by $13.04 or 1.56% to close at $849.99 for the day, making new all-time and all-time closing highs.
That performance was over one percent better than the cash index’s decline of 0.12%.
The biggest loser ended up being Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL). For the day, the issue declined by $2.27 or 1.28% to close at $174.46.
