The steep decline in the S&P 500 futures index in the last hour of Thursday’s session carried over into the premarket trading, which could have been a precursor for a really bad day to end the year. However, the regular session was more of the same as the last three sessions, choppy and range bound until the closing minutes.
The premarket low (4750.50) was never in danger and the premarket high was improved upon off the open as the index rallied to 4778.50
In the final hour, the index appeared to stabilize over 4770 and actually came within one tick of the high for the day with thirteen minutes remaining. However, a large sell imbalance of ($2B) swiftly took the index from the high and down to a new intraday low in the final minute of the session.
While the index had a 24 handle swoon in the last hour on Thursday, aggressive sellers inflicted a 21 handle retreat in a matter of minutes on Friday. The index finished just off the low for the intraday session (4757.25) lower by 13.75 handles to close at 4758.50.
Home Depot (NYSE: HD) was the only gainer of the top components, making it the biggest winner. For the session, the issue added $5.07 or 1.24% to close at $415.01.
That was much better than the cash index’s decline of 0.26%.
Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), led the weakness in the technology sectors and was the biggest loser of the top components. For the session, it declined by $8.01 or 2.3% to close at $336.35.
PreMarket Prep Plus Guest: Sean Udall, CIO Of Quantum Trading Strategies
Udall combed the ditches to find issues that may benefit from the “January Effect”. Read more about the January Effect here.
