Friday’s S&P 500 index futures session kicked off with quad witching volatility, but bulls ultimately dominated, shaking off early pressure to close strong and potentially igniting the seasonal Santa Claus rally.

Overnight action defended unchanged after an initial dip to 6820, keeping the index futures mostly green. Traders seemed to anticipate turbulence from expiring options as the regular session neared. The open delivered sharp swings, testing support at unchanged one final time before bulls charged higher. The rally quickly cleared Thursday’s and Wednesday’s highs. 

Momentum eased above Wednesday’s peak but persisted until stalling at Tuesday’s high just after the lunch hour. Support held firmly at Wednesday’s high, leading to a calm, tight range for the afternoon. Late selling attempted a push lower, but dip-buyers absorbed it swiftly.

The regular session closed near the day’s high at 6887.25, up a healthy 56.75 handles. After hours action extended the peak to 6895.25, still forming a double-top with Tuesday’s high. For the week, that makes for a scratch loss of 3.25 handles or 0.05%.

Next week features a shortened holiday schedule with delayed GDP and other macro releases Tuesday, plus no notable earnings.

Among top index components, NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) emerged as the biggest gainer. The chip designer surged $6.85 or 3.93% to close at $180.99 as buyers took advantage of the issues’ more recent slide.

That performance was a fortunate four times better than the cash index’s 0.91% advance.

Conversely, the biggest loser was Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK.B). For the day, the holding company fell $8.86 or 1.76% to close at $494.53.