The S&P 500 index futures opened Monday on a sour note after weekend news but bulls stepped in to buy the dip and then some, closing the day far from where it started.

Sunday night trading plunged deep into the red, quickly printing a low of 6767 on reports that Iran-US peace talks had fallen apart. Bulls reclaimed the psychological 6800 level overnight, held support there, and were already making new highs by the regular session open. After some early chop, reports that Iran was considering abandoning uranium enrichment seemed to give buyers fresh hope and pushed the index into the green. The morning stayed quiet near unchanged until bulls broke through resistance over lunch, quickly reaching last week’s high. 

In the final hour, bulls powered past last week’s high too, exploding higher in the last 10 minutes once closing imbalances hit, breaking through the psychological 6900 level. The session concluded near the day’s high at 6922.75, up 67.50 handles. After hours, the high extended to 6928.25.

Tuesday brings March’s PPI report at 8:30 AM ET along with the full kickoff of earnings season, led by several big banks reporting in the morning.

Among the top components of the index, Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) stood out as the biggest gainer, climbing $13.50 or 3.64% to close at $384.37.

That performance was over three times better than the cash index’s 0.98% advance.

For the second day in a row, Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT) was the biggest loser, falling $2.23 or 1.76% to close at $124.56.