In one of the choppiest sessions of the year, the S&P 500 index futures gained 18.25 handles to close at 4169.25. Not including premarket trading, there was a 50 handle rip higher off the intraday low, followed by a 50 handle decline, another 30 handle decline, and a rally into the close.
Historically, ahead of the Federal Reserve Banking meeting is an up-day in the markets. Of course, the tenor of the Federal Reserve had changed over the past few months and the 50 basis point rate hike and the comments following will instigate wild swings after 2 PM EST on Wednesday.
The way investors acted in the final hour on Monday and in Monday’s session, there seems to be some scared money out there that is worried they missed another opportunity. In the event, Powell says “supply chain issues are lessening” or “inflation may be peaking soon”, the markets are going to catch a ferocious bid.
On the other hand, if the opposite is stated and Powell is even hawkish, “Katie bar the door.”
Making its first appearance as a top component in the index in a long time and being the biggest gainer as well is Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM). Despite a decline in Crude oil prices, the issue added $1.78 or 2.06 percent to close at $88.19.
That was over double the cash index’s gain of 0.90 percent.
Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) was the biggest drag of the top components on the index. For the session, it declined $2.17 or 1.37% to close at $156.21. That makes for a three-day decline of $7.31 ($163.41 to $156.21) or 4.8 percent.
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