Wednesday’s S&P 500 index futures session opened with early bullish optimism but ultimately succumbed to selling pressure as geopolitical concerns intensified and labor data disappointed.

Overnight trading hovered near Tuesday’s close, tipping briefly green then red. The regular session popped at the bell, testing the psychological 7000 level, but the advance quickly faded. November JOLTS job openings came in below expectations with downward revisions to prior data, helping to hand control to sellers. Support emerged near the premarket low, leading to choppy battles between bulls and bears.

Bids eventually held and bulls pushed to new session highs of 7006.75 over the lunch hour. Afternoon momentum reversed, with a choppy decline accelerating in the final hour as bears broke below early lows and sold aggressively into the close. The regular session ended virtually at the low of 6963.25, down 24.50 handles, with a further slip to 6958 after hours.

Thursday brings Q3 US Productivity, October trade deficit, and other data at 8:30 AM ET, plus a couple earnings after the close.

Among top index components, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) emerged as the biggest gainer. The tech giant rose $7.88 or 2.51% to close at $322.43.

That performance was over two percent better than the cash index’s 0.32% decline.

The biggest loser was Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META). For the day, the tech conglomerate fell $11.93 or 1.81% to close at $648.69.