The non-stop march north was rudely interrupted around 2 PM EST, when the S&P 500 index futures were greeted with an unexpected headline. That being President Xi of China at his latest meeting with President Biden “warned” that Taiwan was going to be reunified with China.
Investors fretted about how that reunification is going to come about.
After shrugging off the lower guidance delivered by FedEx Corp (NYSE: FDX), the index rebounded from a lower open to make a new high for the move. However, the remarks from Xi, reported much earlier in the day, all of sudden began to matter.
Just as the index plowed through the 4700 and lower-4800 handles over the last six sessions, it sliced right back through on the way back down. The final hour and after-hours was brutal, with the index falling from 4817.50 to an after-hours low of 4743.25.
The mark for index futures traders will be at the close of 4749.75, which is a decline of 70.50 handles.
Among the top components, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) was the only, and therefore, the biggest winner. Investors applauded the revamping of its Google Ads platform by sending the issue higher by $1.56 or 1.12% at the closing price of $139.66.
That was over two percent better than the cash index’s decline of 1.47%.
On the other end of the top components, NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) was the biggest loser for the second day in a row. For the session, the issue declined by $14.93 or 3%.
