Heading into Friday’s quadruple witch expiration, the S&P 500 index has put in place a two-day winning streak. The advance was never in serious doubt as the index caught a bid off the 6 PM EST opening on Wednesday night and never went red.
The index already was showing a solid gain ahead of the August Producer Price Index report. Despite it not being as benign as Wednesday’s Consumer Price Index report, the retreat off the release was met with, you know what, buyers.
The bears made one weak attempt to interrupt the rally off the opening bell, but found buyers well ahead of the premarket low (4528 vs. 4519). Around Noon EST, the index pierced the premarket high for good and rambled higher.
A mild round of profit-taking took the index off the highs for the session by the close. Nevertheless, the index still added 37.50 handles at the closing price 4555.
Among the top components, Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META) was the biggest winner. For the session, the issue gained $6.66 or 2.2% at the closing price of $311.72. That marks the highest level since it bottomed on August 21 at $281.86.
This performance was over one percent better than the cash index’s advance 0.84%.
Conversely, a recent new addition to the top components, Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY), was the biggest loser. The issue had its worst day since early July by declining $7.27 or 1.21% at the closing price of $591.61.
