The volatile week ended with a volatile day on the fourth and final Quadruple Witch expiration (a date on which stock index futures, stock index options, stock options, and single stock futures expire simultaneously) of the year.
Off the open, the S&P 500 index futures continued in the same direction of the premarket trading, lower. The index was on the brink of falling into the abyss as it breached the pairs of lows from earlier in the week at the 4600 area, falling to 4590.
Those who missed the opportunity to go long on the other two occasions came in fast and furious. That instigated a 67 handle rally that ended just before 11:00 AM EST, came up just shy of the close (4659.25), only reaching 4657, and reversed course.
The midday price action had the index ripping in 20-30 handle moves in both directions. Around 2:00 PM EST, the index attempted to remain in the 4640 handle, but failed and began to retreat.
The final fifteen minutes of the session was not pretty. Perhaps instigated by a large sell imbalance ($1.09B to the sell-side), caused the index to close in the lower portion of the range. For the session, the index declined 49.75 handles to 4609.50. That made the loss for the week to 94 handles.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) was the biggest gainer of the top components. The issue added $22.93 or 0.68% to close at $3400.35.
That was much better compared to the cash index’s decline of 1.03%.
Home Depot (NYSE: HD) was the biggest loser of the top components. Its two-day skid was almost $20. For the session, it declined by $11.55 or 2.89% to close at $387.98.
Footnote to title: The “Kind Of” was added to the title based on the robust after-hours price action that had the last print of the after-hours session over 10 handles over the mark.
PreMarket Prep Stock Of The Day: C3ai Inc. (NYSE: AI)
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