The bulls continued their streak of making new all-time highs in the S&P 500 index futures during Wednesday’s session, and this time they were able to make some notable progress.
Overnight, the rally slowly progressed above Tuesday’s high until sellers took a few handles of profits just before the opening bell. The action then turned to chop during the regular session as bulls and bears jockeyed for positions.
At 10:00am EST, several economic datapoints were released, including October’s Factory Orders which came in at 0.2%, slightly under the expected month-over-month change of 0.3%. Whether it was profit-takers, bears, or both, sellers started to take over. Fortunately, the round of selling didn’t last long as support was soon found near Tuesday’s high.
A bid was quickly caught and the bulls took the index futures right up to the premarket high. The action stalled just above that level, until sellers once again went to test support near Tuesday’s high right before Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at 1:40pm EST. Once his speech started, that signalled the final turn of the tide as bulls took back the reins.
The rally continued steadily for the rest of the afternoon, right up to 6102.25 just before the close. The session concluded near the day’s high at 6098.50, gaining 35.25 handles and cementing a four-day win streak.
Among the top components of the index, NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) emerged as the biggest gainer. Marvell Technology Inc.’s (NASDAQ: MRVL) positive Q4 forecast helped give an uplift to many chip components, including NVIDIA. For the day, the chip designer was able to advance by $4.88 or 3.48% to close at $145.14.
That performance was more than a fabulous five times better than the cash index’s advance of 0.62%.
On the other hand, the biggest loser was JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM). For the day, the banking behemoth declined by $1.42 or 0.58% to close at $243.40.
