Following a rough few days, one might expect the volatility to continue in the S&P 500 index futures, given some inflation data was also set to be released Friday morning. In short, the session ended up as an inside day, and the bulls held onto most of the gains as well.
As was the case with the previous session, bulls started with the upper hand as overnight trading commenced Thursday night. The difference this time was that the bulls continued their rally throughout the night and into premarket hours. At 8:30am EDT, the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCE) came out within expectations, as per below.
| June Report | Actual | Expected | Previous |
| PCE Index (MoM) | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.0% |
| PCE Index (YoY) | 2.5% | 2.5% | 2.6% |
| Core PCE Index (MoM) | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.1% |
| Core PCE Index (YoY) | 2.6% | 2.6% | 2.6% |
The lack of new news was initially taken as good news, with a quick pop to make a new premarket high, but the index futures came right back down as sellers took advantage. Once the opening bell rang, the index futures were still trading nearly 40 handles in the green, and sellers once again took advantage of those gains. The good news is that the bulls held support just above the daily pivot level, and started their comeback. The bad news was that they couldn’t sustain a bid above the premarket high, at least for the morning.
After trying to test the daily pivot area again, it was clear support would hold and sellers started to give way just before the lunch hour. Once the premarket high was cleared, the bulls were off to the races. The rally continued into the afternoon, coming up five handles short of Thursday’s high. Once it was clear buying would not continue, it was straight back to the 5500 area. Though the bears initiated quite a few rounds of selling as the close neared, the bulls managed to keep most of the day’s gains.
The session concluded above mid range on the day at 5499, advancing by 57.75 handles. That halved the total decline for the week to just 54.75 handles or 0.99%.
Among the top components of the index, Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META) emerged as the biggest gainer. The tech conglomerate was able to advance by $12.29 or 2.71% to close at $465.70 for the day.
That performance was over twice the cash index’s advance of 1.12%.
Conversely, the biggest loser was Eli Lilly And Co (NYSE: LLY) for the second day in a row. For the session, the healthcare company declined by another $17.63 or 2.14% to close at $804.62.
