Bears took back control of the S&P 500 index futures on Tuesday, but not before bulls gave them a run for their shorts, as market participants digested geopolitical reports and adjusted their expectations for a Fed rate hike on Wednesday.

The overnight session began with a slight uplift, but bulls could not push past the psychological 7700 level, and bids started to evaporate after a high of 7701. Support came in just below last week’s low, and bulls began clawing their way back up. Resistance proved strong near 7700 once again, and the regular session opened just under that mark with the bears pressuring lower.

The decline continued steadily, taking the index futures down toward the premarket low and ticking slightly beneath it to 7643.50. From that point, bulls managed to hold support just above the low, but they were unable to mount any significant rallies. The choppy afternoon concluded in the lower half of the day’s range at 7656, losing 36.75 handles.

Wednesday, market participants can look forward to August retail sales and import price data at 8:30 AM ET, along with the latest FOMC interest rate decision at 2:00 PM ET and the following press conference, plus a few earnings reports in the morning and evening.

Among the top components of the index, Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META) emerged as the biggest gainer. The tech conglomerate advanced by $4.64 or 0.70% to close at $670.24 for the day.

That performance was over 1% better than the cash index’s decline of 0.46%.

Conversely, the biggest loser ended up being Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN). For the day, the e-commerce giant declined by $5.12 or 2.02% to close at $248.42.