Wednesday’s session in the S&P 500 index futures rode a wave of earnings optimism and hopes for softer tariffs, but the bullish spark dimmed by mid-morning.

Overnight and into the morning, bulls maintained control, helped by Trump’s Tuesday evening comments hinting at a China tariff below 145%. The regular session opened near the premarket high around the 5450 area, with buyers charging to new highs until resistance loomed a tick shy of the psychological 5500 mark, close to the April 14 peak. Bulls and bears slugged it out there, but bears and profit-takers gained the upper hand, perhaps being helped out by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s remarks that no unilateral tariff cuts were offered to China, shattering support at the premarket high.

Bears drove the index to the overnight low, where bulls clawed back some ground, but the day dissolved into chop with traders selling pops rather than buying dips. The session closed in the lower half of the day’s range at 5401.75, up 87 handles. While the futures may have closed above 5400, the underlying index still lies below that level pointed out recently by Mish Schneider.

Thursday brings more heavy-hitting earnings, including those from Intel Corp (NASDAQ: INTC) and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) near 4:01 PM and 4:03 PM ET, respectively.

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) snagged the biggest win among top components once again, surging $12.77, or 5.37%, to close at $250.74, buoyed by its Q1 earnings report and Elon Musk’s pledge to focus on Tesla in May, along with no delays signaled for Robotaxi or FSD rollouts.

That outpaced the cash index’s 1.55% gain by over three times. 

No top components posted losses, leaving Eli Lilly And Co (NYSE: LLY) as the smallest gainer for the second day in a row, inching up $2.24, or 0.27%, to close at $829.42.