A few days ahead of a big economic report, the S&P 500 index is often range bound as investors jockey for or trim positions ahead of the market-moving event. That, coupled with markets being closed when the March jobs report is being released (not open on Good Friday), had both bulls and bears playing some defense.
The bulls defended Wednesday’s low early in the session (4099 vs. 4096.50). The bears defended Wednesday’s high (4135.50 vs. 4135.25). With that being said, the bulls prevailed as the index closed near the high for the session by adding 14.75 handles at the closing 4132.
For the week, the index posted a slight decline of 6.25 handles after gaining 136.50 handles last week.
While the index will reopen at 6:00 PM EST tonight, the reaction from the report will not be revealed until Sunday night at 6:00 PM EST.
The biggest winner of the top components of the index was Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). The issue benefitted from the AI hype for its search engine and gained $3.95 or 3.8% at the closing price of $108.90.
That was over three percent better than the cash index’s advance of 0.36%.
Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) was the biggest loser of the top components. For the session, the issue declined by $1.94 or 1.7%.
