After Thursday’s sharp selloff, bulls in the S&P 500 index futures tried for a rally on Friday the 13th but failed to hold meaningful gains in a textbook CPI pop-and-drop session.
| January Report | Actual | Expected | Previous |
| CPI (MoM) | 0.2% | 0.3% | 0.3% |
| CPI (YoY) | 2.4% | 2.5% | 2.7% |
| Core CPI (MoM) | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.2% |
| Core CPI (YoY) | 2.5% | 2.5% | 2.6% |
Overnight, bulls were fighting to maintain support ahead of the key inflation report. When January CPI data hit, buyers rushed in and briefly pushed futures into the green, though the rally quickly stalled near unchanged. Choppy trading carried into the regular session open and intensified after the bell. Amid the volatility, sellers flushed the index to a low of 6808.75, only for buyers to snap it back just as fast. Bulls then gained the upper hand, but the advance was bumpy and uneven.
Volatility eased into the lunch hour, where futures formed an intraday double-top at 6897.75. Bids weakened in the final hour, with sellers erasing the day’s gains before buyers stepped in to defend unchanged. The session closed near the day’s midpoint at 6850.50, down just 0.50 handles.
Next week is shortened by the Presidents’ Day holiday on Monday. Traders and investors can expect macro data throughout, FOMC minutes Wednesday, the PCE report Friday, and a heavy earnings calendar, including Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT) Thursday morning.
Among the top components of the index, Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT) stood out as the biggest gainer for the third day in a row, edging up $0.25 or 0.19% to close at $133.89 and printing new all-time highs.
That gain was more than twice the cash index’s 0.07% advance.
Conversely, Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) was the biggest loser for the second consecutive day, sliding $5.95 or 2.27% to close at $255.78.
