Despite starting the week with relatively quiet, inside action, Friday’s session proved volatility can continue to fluctuate wildly in the S&P 500 index futures.
Between Friday being a Quadruple Witching Day and a Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) data day, bears were able to pressure the index futures to new lows for the week during overnight trading. The lows continued to be made until about two hours before the PCE data was released at 8:30am EST.
| November Report | Actual | Expected | Previous |
| PCE Index (MoM) | 0.1% | 0.2% | 0.2% |
| PCE Index (YoY) | 2.4% | 2.5% | 2.3% |
| Core PCE Index (MoM) | 0.1% | 0.2% | 0.3% |
| Core PCE Index (YoY) | 2.8% | 2.9% | 2.8% |
The lower-than-expected inflation data gave a sudden boost to the bulls, who swiftly made their way back into the 5900 handle and sustained that level until the opening bell. Post-open, the bulls remained in control, but came up against resistance at Thursday’s close. Not giving up, they soon instigated a rally that brought the index futures into the green and beyond.
Continuing until the lunch hour, the strong and steady rally came to a halt at the 6050 level, at which point profit-takers and bears had their turn once again. The consistent afternoon selloff lasted until the close, where the action turned quite choppy as market participants adjusted their positions. The session still concluded in the upper half of the day’s range at 6001.75, gaining 67.75 handles. That nevertheless makes for a loss of 126.95 handles or 2.07% for the week.
Among the top components of the index, NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) emerged as the biggest gainer. The chip designer was able to advance by $4.02 or 3.08% to close at $134.70 for the day.
That performance was over two times better than the cash index’s advance of 1.20%.
Conversely, the biggest loser ended up being Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA). For the day, the EV maker declined by $15.11 or 3.46% to close at $421.06.
