Action in the S&P 500 index futures continues to provide plenty of opportunities for dip-buyers, and bulls showed up once again for Thursday’s session.
After an early morning rally that brought the index futures up from the 5900 area, sellers showed up during intraday trading in a big way. Nearly immediately after the opening bell, news affecting Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL, GOOG) instigated a swoon of about 50 handles, taking the index futures from comfortably in the green back down into red territory. Choppy action soon followed as the bulls and bears fought for dominance.
Support was found near the premarket low just above the psychological 5900 level, and once the bulls established a bid, sellers seemed to fade away. As the rally continued in the afternoon, bulls were able to breach the premarket high, but not by too much. In the final half hour, sellers took the index futures back below last Friday’s high. The session concluded somewhat near the day’s high at 5970.50, gaining 32.75 handles.
Among the top components of the index, JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) emerged as the biggest gainer. The banking behemoth was able to advance by $3.98 or 1.65% to close at $244.76 for the day.
That performance was over three times better than the cash index’s advance of 0.54%.
On the other hand, the biggest loser by far was Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) after the DOJ said the company must sell its Chrome browser. For the day, the tech giant declined by $8.35 or 4.74% to close at $167.63.
