Could there be a worse double dose of bad news on a Friday than an emergency Federal Reserve Board meeting on Monday (perhaps to raise rates) coupled with political tensions with Russia gaining momentum? No.
While comments from St. Louis Federal President James Bullard injected fear into the markets on Thursday, investors acted on those fears in Friday’s session.
In a familiar fashion, the S&P 500 index ended the week at one extreme of its trading range. Unfortunately, it was at the bottom of the range in a volatile week. Adding significance to Friday’s low (4393.25) is that it coincided with the index’s low from January 31 (4395.50), making it a key area for Sunday’s premarket session.
For the session, the index skidded 88 handles to close at 4409.50. Interestingly, that almost represents just over the total loss for the week of 83 handles.
Once again, the biggest gainer of the top components of the index was the smallest loser. That being Berkshire Hathaway Class B (NYSE: BRK.B) which sank $0.71 or 0.22% to close at $319.14.
That was much better than the cash index’s decline of 1.96%.
High beta Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) was the biggest loser of the top components. Stepdown sellers emerged after the open, knocking $18.75 or 7.26% to close at $239.49.
PreMarket Prep Plus Friday Guest: Sean Udall, the Tech Stock Strategist and the publisher of The Udall Report
Sean is again, attempting to find a bottom in a beaten-down stock, Affirm Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: AFRM). Read more on AFRM here.
