Thursday’s S&P 500 index futures session teased a breakout, with bulls charging to a new high of 6016.50 on Trump-Xi call buzz, but resistance stood firm as sellers seized control. 

The premarket action saw headlines of a Trump-Xi call, igniting bulls to drive the index to 6016.50, a new daily, weekly, and monthly high. But the momentum stalled as bids soon faded. The early gains continued to evaporate as the regular session opened below the peak, and selling pressure dragged the index into the red. Support around the 5960 area sparked a bull counterattack, fueled by further reports of Xi’s comments, pushing back into the 6000s. Yet, the afternoon brought more twists: Elon Musk’s X tirade against the latest congressional spending bill and his Trump tanked Tesla, seemingly rippling across other issues as well. 

Bears held the edge in the back-and-forth index futures action, with chop dominating into the close. After the bulls defended a late low of 5928.75, the session wrapped at 5946, down 35 handles.

Beyond the Musk-Trump fallout, market participants can now look forward to Friday’s 8:30 AM ET job report.

Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) claimed the day’s top spot among top components, tacking on $3.81, or 0.82%, to close at $467.68, marginally marking new all-time and all-time closing highs. 

That beat the cash index’s 0.48% slide by over 1%. 

Meanwhile, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) took the hardest hit, plunging $47.35, or 14.26%, to $284.70, battered by the Musk-Trump social media showdown.