Though buyers were able to instigate at least two decent rallies during Tuesday’s session, the S&P 500 index futures still gave up most of the gains by the end of the day, and even more so after hours. The silver lining is that the index futures remained above Monday’s close the entire time.
Following momentum from Monday’s close, the Globex session open was the overnight low for the first 10 hours. The rally was also initially helped along by a solid rebound in Japanese markets. Buying soon stalled out in the 5300 area, and bears slowly started to return.
The regular session began near the premarket low, which also hovered just above Monday’s close. Sellers were quick to test support near that level, soon finding the low of the day at 5221.75. Once it was clear support would hold, a bid was caught and the buy-the-dippers were back in business. The rally first encountered resistance at the premarket high, at which point sellers took advantage of the morning move. The bulls weren’t done, however, as they soon had the index futures back to that level and beyond.
The rally found its peak during the penultimate hour of the regular session at 5342, coinciding with Monday’s high. Once it was clear the bids would not continue higher, the bears came back with a vengeance. Support was briefly found once again in the 5300 area, but once that was broken during the final 15 minutes, the pace of the decline accelerated.
Breaking a three-day losing streak, the session concluded in the lower half of the day’s range at 5266.25, marking a gain of 48.75 handles.
Among the top components of the index, Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META) emerged as the biggest gainer. The tech conglomerate was able to advance by $18.36 or 3.86% to close at $494.09 for the day.
That performance was over four times better than the cash index’s advance of 0.92%.
On the other hand, the biggest loser ended up being Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL). For the day, the tech giant declined by $2.04 or 0.97% to close at $207.23.
