Friday’s S&P 500 index futures session saw dip-buying and short-covering prevent a close at the week’s lows, while support was found somewhat near last month’s low.

Overnight action had bulls trying to defend Thursday’s close, with the index futures dipping to a session low of 6525 in the early morning. That pierced October’s low by about 15 handles. Fed President Williams’ early morning comments hinting at possible near-term rate cuts helped ignite a powerful bounce, popping the index futures back into the green and holding firm into the regular session open. Post-open chop favored bears initially, but support solidified above the premarket low as sellers exhausted. By lunchtime, bulls had reclaimed positive territory and defended the psychological 6600 level. 

A mid-afternoon push reached an intraday high of 6677.50, near the 50% retracement of Thursday’s selloff, before stalling. Late-day profit-taking trimmed gains in the final hour and a half. The regular session closed above the day’s midpoint at 6620.25, up 62.75 handles. For the week, the index futures shed 135 handles or 2.00%.

Next week brings scattered earnings early on and delayed macro releases, including September’s PPI on Tuesday.

Among top index components, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) led as the biggest gainer, surging $10.21 or 3.53% to close at $299.66.

That outperformed the cash index’s 1.00% advance by more than three times. 

On the other hand, Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ: AVGO) was the biggest loser, falling $6.62 or 1.91% to close at $340.20.