Bulls took charge on Thursday and lifted the S&P 500 index futures out of their recent dip, with investors piling into AI plays and driving back toward recent resistance.

Overnight, bulls slowly built up from an initial low of 7516.25, soon reclaiming green territory but not progressing much beyond it. Off the opening bell, bears went to test support at unchanged but were promptly denied as the bulls mounted a rally. Just as the index futures broke through the premarket high, bears hit back with a quick selloff to test unchanged one last time.

This time, bids accumulated a bit more gradually, and the rally was on. The bulls didn’t let up until nearing the recent resistance area between 7593 and 7603, topping out at a high of 7595 and marking a quadruple-top in that zone. There was some slight profit-taking in the penultimate hour, but a handful of buyers came back in to finish the day strong. The session concluded near the day’s high at 7588.75, gaining 60 handles.

Tomorrow, market participants can look forward to a break from macro data, with only one notable earnings report due in the morning.

Among the top components of the index, Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META) emerged as the biggest gainer. The tech conglomerate advanced by $28.36 or 4.70% to close at $631.48 for the day.

That performance was a fabulous five times better than the cash index’s advance of 0.85%.

Conversely, the biggest loser ended up being Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL). For the day, the tech giant declined by $3.03 or 0.84% to close at $358.89.