Happy Thanksgiving to all our readers and listeners. As much as we’d like to report fresh all-time highs, resistance held strong during Wednesday’s session in the S&P 500 index futures.
Overnight, the bulls tried to rally up to the all-time high (6053.25), but fell short by about six handles. From that point, sellers started to take back control of the action. At 8:30am EST, a slew of economic data was released, including October’s Durable-Goods Orders coming in below expectations, and the first revision of Q3’s GDP coming within expectations. Bulls were able to gain a few handles, but came up against heavy resistance at unchanged.
The regular session began slightly in the red as the bulls and bears battled for dominance. Unable to reach Tuesday’s close, any attempt at a rally by the bulls was snuffed, especially once October’s Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) data as released at 10:00am EST as follows:
| October Report | Actual | Expected | Previous |
| PCE Index (MoM) | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.2% |
| PCE Index (YoY) | 2.3% | 2.3% | 2.1% |
| Core PCE Index (MoM) | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.3% |
| Core PCE Index (YoY) | 2.8% | 2.8% | 2.7% |
Bears soon had full control of the action, leading to a selloff that would last until the lunch hour. Bottoming nearly perfectly at the psychological 6000 level, buy-the-dippers came back to pare some of the morning’s losses. After gaining back some ground, the afternoon chop then concluded below the day’s midpoint at 6015, losing 23.25 handles for the day.
Among the top components of the index, Berkshire Hathaway Inc Class B (NYSE: BRK.B) emerged as the biggest gainer. The holding company was able to advance by $4.58 or 0.96% to close at $483.08 for the session.
That performance was still better than the cash index’s decline of 0.30%.
Conversely, the biggest loser was Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ: AVGO). Broadcom, along with other tech components, declined in sympathy to Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE: DELL), whose recent earnings report lowered guidance for upcoming quarters. Breaking to the downside of its recent range, the chip designer declined by $5.07 or 3.08% to close at $159.67.
