On many occasions, the S&P 500 index futures will make their high or low for the week on Friday, and that took place this week. Unfortunately, the index closed on the lows for the week this time. When Thursday’s low provided no support in the premarket session, the bears were anxious to test the bulls’ resilience below.
Off the open, the index made an attempt to go green and cratered. Once the premarket low was breached, the pace of the decline accelerated. With no significant daily levels of support to lean on, the bulls made a stand at 4255.25 heading into the lunch hour.
The rebound off that low took the index nearly 30 handles higher, but succumbed to more selling pressure. Heading into the final hour the bulls attempted to defend the low to no avail.
The end result was a decline of 54.50 handles at the closing price of 4248.50. The index has been lower in 5 of the last 7, with one up day and one flat day.
For the week, that brings the decline to 108.75 handles. On a weekly basis, the index has been lower in six of the past seven weeks.
All of the top components of the index were in the red. Therefore, the biggest winner was the smallest loser, that being UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH). For the session, the issue added $4.60 or 0.87% at the closing price of $327.03
That performance was better than the cash index’s decline of 1.26%.
Conversely, for the third day in a row, Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was the biggest loser. After a lower open, the issue could not recover Thursday’s closing price ($220.11) and was under extreme selling pressure for much of the session. On the day, the issue declined by $8.12 or 3.7% at the closing price of $211.99. For the week, the issue swooned $39.13 or 15.5%. It is now trading at levels not seen since June.
