Bulls continued the rally through to Wednesday’s session in the S&P 500 index futures to start the month, but it wasn’t without some bears striking back to start the month.

Overnight, bulls established the low of 6561 right away and built bids steadily, distancing themselves from that level through the night. By morning, they held support above Tuesday’s high despite several bearish tests. A quick pop and drop occurred before the open following a Trump post about Iran’s new president asking for a ceasefire, capped by a comment about continuing pressure on Iran. The regular session saw a similar pattern, with an early rally followed by a drop, after which bulls maintained bids and initiated a slow steady rally back to the premarket high. 

In the afternoon, bulls pushed to a high of 6653.75 forming a double-top with last week’s high. Once it was clear resistance would hold, bids started to give way to a roughly 50-handle dip, testing the psychological 6600 level. Bulls defended support and fought the bears to regain some ground in the final two hours. The session concluded above the day’s midpoint at 6617.75, gaining 47 handles.

Thursday brings February’s US trade deficit at 8:30 AM ET along with a few small earnings reports in the morning and evening.

Among the top components of the index, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) stood out as the biggest gainer, climbing $9.83 or 3.42% to close at $297.39.

That performance was a fortunate four times better than the cash index’s 0.75% advance.

On the other hand, Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) was the biggest loser, declining $0.80 or 0.22% to close at $369.37.