What the close in the S&P 500 index, a decline of 10.25 handles to 4340.75, is not going to accurately reflect is the damage inflicted on the index in early after-hours trading. While a substantial sell imbalance on the close thwarted a last-minute recovery, it was the Federal Reserve’s St. Louis President, James Bullard who is the culprit for the after-hours slaughter.
After the close, Bullard strongly suggested that the central bank should become much more aggressive as it starts winding down its monthly bond-buying program. In his opinion, the punk jobs data is not indicative of where the economy is heading and wants to squash inflation now.
What matters now is can the index hold the quad of lows at the 4265 area from last week.
Once again, there was only one issue of the top components that were in the green, Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA). While the issue did not make a new high for the recent rally, it did post a new closing high adding $13.98 or 1.7% to close at $805.72. That was much better than the cash index’s decline of 0.24%.
Not including Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) in the after-hours tumble, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE; JNJ) was the biggest loser of the top components. For the session, the issue declined $2.58 or 1.64% to close at $157.69.
PreMarket Prep Stock Of The Day: Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB)
More bad news = lower share price. Read more about FB here.
