Wednesday’s S&P 500 index futures session halted a four-day slide, chopping through a wide range before closing modestly higher as traders positioned ahead of NVIDIA’s highly anticipated earnings report.

Overnight action hugged unchanged, marking the session low of 6613.25. The regular session also opened near Tuesday’s close, with bulls driving a sharp morning rally straight to a high of 6709, forming a double-top with Tuesday’s peak. Comments from a White House Economic Adviser hinting at upcoming stronger productivity revisions seemed to turn sentiment, helping hand control back to bears who erased the early gains. During the lunch hour, a Bureau of Labor Statistics notice that October’s employment report would not be published seemed to trigger a quick dip near the lows. A swift clarification that October data would roll into November’s release also seemed to reverse the move. 

The afternoon remained choppy, with bulls and bears battling into the close. The regular session ended near the midpoint at 6661.50, up 21.75 handles. After hours, NVIDIA’s strong earnings helped propel index futures back toward the day’s high.

Thursday is set to bring September’s employment report at 8:30 AM ET, plus a few earnings morning and evening.

Among top index components, Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ: AVGO) led as the biggest gainer, jumping $13.92 or 4.09% to close at $354.42 ahead of NVIDIA’s report.

That outperformed the cash index’s 0.39% gain by an order of magnitude. 

On the other hand, Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) was the biggest loser, slipping $6.67 or 1.35% to close at $487.12.