The market mood appears to have soured as the index futures slid early Friday, which is expected to be volatile due to the triple witching phenomena. There could be a lack of incentive to buy for want of any major Main Street catalysts, as some economists have begun flashing the danger of a hard landing. Negative reaction to earnings released late Thursday may also serve as a dampener
Triple-witching refers to the simultaneous expiration of stock options, index options and index futures contracts, and the session is marked by increased volume and high volatility. This quarterly event will see some $5.1 trillion worth of options tied to individual stocks, indexes and exchange-traded funds fall off the board, Bloomberg reported, citing data analytics firm Asym 500.
Futures
Performance (+/-)
Nasdaq 100
-0.22%
S&P 500
-0.34%
Dow
-0.03%
R2K
-0.31%
In premarket trading on Friday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) fell 0.18% to $568.21 and the Invesco QQQ ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ) slipped 0.31% to $481.86, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Cues From Last Session:
Pent-up buying perked up on Wall Street on Thursday, as risky bets rallied across the board, led by tech stocks, following the Fed’s first rate cut in about 4-1/2 years. Traders also drew comfort from a few positive economic data, including an unexpected drop in weekly jobless claims, the Philadelphia regional manufacturing activity unexpectedly turning to expansion territory and a smaller-than-expected drop in Conference Board’s leading economic index.
The S&P 500 Information Technology Index ended the day up 3.08%, while consumer discretionary and communication technology stocks also rose sharply. On the other hand, safe-haven consumer staples, utility and real-estate stocks pulled back modestly.
The major averages gap opened higher and moved roughly sideways before ...
