Sometimes premarket traders get it right and sometimes they get it wrong. On Wednesday, they got it right in a big way. The tug of war in the after-hours session on Tuesday, instigated by Microsoft’s beat and Alphabet’s subpar report, was not repeated in the premarket nor the regular session.
Clearly, the bears were dominant.
In fact, the nearly 20-handle lower open turned out to be the exact high tick of the regular session. Unlike other big down-openings, there was no sympathetic rally early on. Instead, the bears pounded every bid in sight.
Eventually, the index found buyers ahead of the psychological support level of 4200, which corresponded with some lows in mid-May.
The index had a few sporadic rallies in the final hour, but were unable to clearly distance itself from the intraday low. The end result was a hefty decline of 61.50 handles at the closing price of 4209.75. That marks the lowest close for the index since May 3.
Among the top components, Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) was the biggest winner. The company was rewarded for its Q3 report by advancing $10.14 or 3.07% at the closing price of $340.67. It should be noted that it closed roughly $6 off its high for the session.
That performance was over four percent better than the cash index’s decline of 1.43%.
Conversely, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) was the biggest loser. Investors were extremely disappointed with its Q3 report, primarily because of the tepid growth in its cloud business. The issue had one of its worst days in months by declining $13.45 or 9.6% at the closing price of $126.67.
