Bulls kept the recovery rolling on Thursday, driving the S&P 500 index futures steadily higher as market participants digested the day’s news and Fed comments pointing to a lesser chance of a rate cut at September’s meeting.

Overnight, bulls and bears traded small blows, oscillating around Wednesday’s close and setting the day’s low at 7661.25. July’s US trade balance then came in slightly above expectations, seemingly giving the bulls a bit of fuel and carrying the index futures away from unchanged and solidly into green territory.

The regular session began with more buying before bears hit back, and the action settled into chop. Late morning, Trump posts about having plenty of ammunition for war, plus comments on belatedly asking Europe for money given to Ukraine and NATO, seemed to inject a bit of volatility into the action. After that came a bull rally that went straight up, bringing the index futures to near last week’s high. After plateauing over the lunch hour, bulls were able to push the high a bit more, to 7766.50, before some light profit-taking took place in the final two hours. The session concluded near the day’s high at 7754.75, gaining a healthy 78.25 handles.

Friday, market participants can look forward to August’s employment report at 8:30 AM ET, and a break from notable earnings reports.

Among the top components of the index, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) emerged as the biggest gainer. After reports of the company moving forward with a Cybercab launch event in Texas later in the day, the AI/EV company advanced by $19.35 or 5.42% to close at $376.37 for the day.

That performance was a fabulous five times better than the cash index’s advance of 1.05%.

Conversely, the biggest loser ended up being Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ: AVGO) after releasing its latest earnings report Wednesday evening. After top- and bottom-line beats, lowered guidance gave investors a reason to head for the exit. For the day, the chip designer declined by $10.08 or 2.74% to close at $357.16.