The S&P 500 index futures touched new all-time highs during Wednesday’s session but gave back gains to finish essentially flat in a volatile, scratch day full of catalysts.

Overnight, earnings momentum helped bulls push to a fresh all-time high of 7043. Support near the prior all-time high temporarily held, but an early Trump post about a “massive armada heading to Iran” helped spark selling that erased much of the advance. The regular session opened green yet quickly turned choppy and leading lower, reaching Tuesday’s close by noon where trading stabilized.

The FOMC held rates steady as widely expected. Volatility surged when Fed Chair Powell spoke, with mostly dovish remarks, including the economy on “firm footing” and much of the recent inflation overrun tied to tariffs, briefly fueling a bullish push back into the green. Once the press conference ended, bids faded again. Futures chopped around unchanged into the close ahead of several major after-hours earnings.

The session finished near the day’s midpoint at 7007.25, down a negligible 1.25 handles. Initial after-hours reactions drove futures to 6977.25 on heavy selling, but dip-buyers quickly stepped in to recover into the green just as quickly.

Thursday features the delayed November US trade deficit at 8:30 AM ET, additional macro data, and another packed earnings slate before and after the close, including Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) around 4:30 PM ET.

Among top index components, NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) led as the biggest gainer for the regular session, rising $3.00 or 1.59% to close at $191.52. 

That performance was over one percent better than the cash index’s 0.01% decline. 

Conversely, Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) was the biggest loser, slipping $1.83 or 0.71% to close at $256.44.