After the end-of-month decline on Thursday, bulls were ready to buy the dip in the S&P 500 index futures to start November off on a positive note. The bad news is that most of Friday’s intraday gains were given up by the time the dust settled.
Of the two top components that reported earnings after Thursday’s close (more on those below), only one was bought up by investors, but in a big way. That helped give an initial lift to the index futures as Globex trading began overnight. After establishing a double bottom at Thursday’s low, the buy-the-dippers slowly took advantage of Thursday’s discount. At 8:30am EDT, October’s US Employment Report was released as follows:
| US October Report | Actual | Expected | Previous |
| Nonfarm Payrolls Added | 12,000 | 110,000 | 223,000 |
| Unemployment Rate | 4.1% | 4.1% | 4.1% |
| Hourly Wages (MoM) | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.4% |
| Hourly Wages (YoY) | 4.0% | 4.0% | 4.0% |
The underwhelming number of jobs added seemed to instigate volatility in both directions, with the initial edge going to the bulls. However, by the regular session open, those gains were given up. After the opening bell rang, the bulls came back with a vengeance. Surging past the premarket high, a rally took the index futures nearly straight up to test last week’s low in the 5801 area. Unfortunately, previous support in that area had now turned into resistance. Before the lunch hour, bulls tested resistance one last time, but selling pressure turned out to be too much.
While the decline wasn’t entirely steady, lower lows were made throughout the rest of the trading session, even minutes before the close. The session concluded just below the day’s midpoint at 5758.25, losing 19.75 handles. For the week, that makes for a loss of 87.75 handles or 1.50%.
One of the few bright spots among the top components of the index was Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN), emerging as the biggest gainer. The company released their Q3 earnings report after Thursday’s close which included top and bottom-line beats, as well as raised guidance for the rest of the fiscal year. With the positive report and several price target raises in tow, the e-commerce giant was able to advance by $11.53 or 6.19% to close at $197.93 for the day.
That performance was over 14 times better than the cash index’s advance of 0.42%.
Conversely, the biggest loser ended up being Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) after they released their Q4 earnings report after Thursday’s close. Though the company beat expectations on their bottom-line, lowered guidance for upcoming quarters had some investors heading for the exit. For the day, the tech giant declined by $3.00 or 1.33% to close at $222.91.
