The bears continued to rule S&P 500 index futures during premarket hours on Wednesday, but the bulls came out during the regular session to buy the dip once again.
In economic news, ADP’s private US employment report was released at 8:15am EST, indicating 184,000 jobs were added in March, exceeding expectations of 155,000. This gave the bears an edge to keep the index futures in the red before the open.
Though the bulls started their buying nearly right after the opening bell, the rally didn’t take off until 10:00am EST when the ISM Services Index for March came in below expectations (51.4 vs. 52.8 est.). Signaling the possibility of a rate cut, the bulls were able to take the index well into the green, where it remained for the majority of the day. Among various fedspeak, Jerome Powell’s comments during the lunch hour ignited some midday volatility, with the index futures dipping to unchanged, only then to be quickly bought up.
During the final hour of the session, the bears were once again able to take the index futures into the red, testing the lows seen off the opening bell. The buy-the-dippers didn’t seem phased by the late-day selling, as the bulls had the index back up into the positive in the closing minutes. The session concluded near the middle of the day’s range, up 6 handles at the closing price of 5266.50, snapping a three-day losing streak.
Among the top components of the index, Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META) was the biggest winner for the second day in a row. The social media giant was able to advance by $9.37 or 1.88% to close at $506.74 for the day, despite a slight price target cut to $600 by Wells Fargo.
For those keeping track, that performance was over 17 times better than the cash index’s advance of 0.11%.
The biggest loser among top components ended up being NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA). The recent Taiwan earthquake was threatening chip supply setbacks, though the company announced they expect no impact. For the day, the chip behemoth declined by $4.88 or 0.55% to close at $889.64.
