The S&P 500 index futures spent Tuesday’s session locked within recent bounds, as market participants digested geopolitical headlines and eagerly anticipated Wednesday’s top-component earnings out of the AI and chip industries.
Overnight, support held near recent lows, with the index futures bottoming at 7660.25 and carving out a quadruple-bottom in that area. As the night progressed, bulls made their way up past Monday’s high and into the 7700-handle, buoyed by reports of potentially positive progress with US-Middle East relations. By early morning, they had put in the high of 7714, a perfect double-top with Friday’s high. That level would not be tested again.
Profit-takers and bears started to come in by the regular session start, though support still clung near the 7700 area. After the post-open chop, sellers took hold of the reins. A late-morning post from Trump that poked the Hormuz/Iran-bear seemed to poke bears into action as well, and they drove the index futures right down to test the overnight low. That dip proved very short-lived, as buy-the-dippers stepped in within minutes and hauled the index futures back into the green. From there, the afternoon turned somewhat choppy, with bulls holding onto some of their gains, and a last-minute push added a few handles just before the close. The session concluded above the day’s midpoint at 7692, gaining 22.25 handles.
Wednesday, market participants can look forward to July’s durable goods, personal income and PCE data, and more, all at 8:30 AM ET. A few earnings reports will also be released before the open, along with a load of reports after the close including NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA).
Among the top components of the index, NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA) emerged as the biggest gainer one day ahead of its expected earnings report. The chip designer advanced by $4.57 or 2.19% to close at $213.05 for the day.
That performance was a significant six times better than the cash index’s advance of 0.32%.
Conversely, the biggest loser ended up being Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT). For the day, the retail giant declined by $1.11 or 1.04% to close at $105.38.
