The propensity of the S&P 500 index futures to finish the week on either the highs or lows continues to play out, and was the case for Friday’s session. The day’s action also stands out as having a contracted trading range (less than 66 handles), anywhere from one half to one third of what it has been recently, just as earnings season ramps down.
Most of Friday’s session could also be described as oscillation. From the overnight action through the premarket hours, the bulls and bears each took their turns making new highs in the green, then new lows in the red. By the regular session open, the index futures were trading somewhat below Thursday’s closing level. After a quick rally and test of resistance at unchanged, the bears swung back to test the premarket low. Before even reaching the premarket low of 5319.50, the bulls held a bid just under last week’s low and instigated a rally.
The bulls and bears continued their back and forth during the morning, though the bulls were able to maintain higher lows after the bouts of selling. During the lunch hour, the index futures were near unchanged for the day, but it seemed only the bulls returned after lunch as they swiftly rallied straight through the premarket high to make new highs for the week. Unfortunately the rally didn’t last long, and sellers soon pared some of the afternoon gains. The index futures stayed green for the rest of the session, and with another small tug-of-war near the close, ended somewhat near the day’s high.
The session concluded at 5370.25, gaining 22 handles. For the week, that makes for a slight loss of 5.75 handles or 0.11%. Traders have more potential volatility to look forward to next week, as the latest PPI and CPI inflation data is released on Tuesday (Aug 13) and Wednesday (Aug 14).
Eli Lilly And Co (NYSE: LLY) emerged as the biggest gainer among the top components of the index for the second day in a row. The healthcare company continued their post-earnings run, advancing by $46.37 or 5.49% to close at $891.68 for the day.
That performance was at least a decent dozen times better than the cash index’s advance of 0.44%.
Conversely, the biggest loser ended up being NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA). For the day, the chip designer declined by $0.22 or 0.21% to close at $104.75.
