Friday’s session in the S&P 500 index futures started with bears firmly in control. Between the quad witch expiration and Chicago Fed President Goolsbee’s morning remarks about tariffs potentially fueling stagflation, making it “Uncomfortable when inflation and unemployment are both moving higher,” sellers pounced. In the hour before the open, the index futures swiftly dropped about 50 handles, hitting a premarket low of 5651.25.

The regular session kicked off just above that low, but trading turned quite choppy from there. The silver lining? Support at the premarket low held firm, and bulls clawed back some ground, aided by the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: SPY) announcing its latest distribution. Momentum stalled briefly after Fed’s Williams weighed in with comments on tariff uncertainty, sparking another round of selling. Then Trump stole the spotlight. Highlighting flexibility on tariffs, his remarks seemed to give bulls the green light to rally, lifting the index futures off their lows.

Sellers lingered just below Thursday’s close, keeping the index from breaking into the green for most of the day. Buyers stayed resilient, though. After consolidating under that level through the afternoon, a last-gasp rally into the close nudged the index slightly positive. The session wrapped up near the day’s high at 5718.25, eking out a slight gain of 5.50 handles.

Among the index’s top components, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) roared ahead as the biggest gainer. Boosted by CEO Elon Musk’s Thursday evening speech and Wedbush reiterating a $550 price target, the EV maker surged $12.45, or 5.27%, to close at $248.71. 

For those tracking the numbers, that outpaced the cash index’s 0.03% advance by over 175 times.

On the flip side, Berkshire Hathaway Inc Class B (NYSE: BRK.B) took the hardest hit among top components. The holding company slid $6.82, or 1.29%, to close at $521.91, in a reversal from its recent momentum.