Day Traders Diary

5/1/24

After a lousy April, the market averages closed mixed to start May as investors took some encouragement from the Federal Reserve's latest policy decision on interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 87 points thanks in part to Amazon. The S&P 500 fell 17 points while the Nasdaq fell 52 points.

Plenty of tech earnings in the last 24 hours. Amazon rose 2% on  better-than-expected earnings and revenue in the first quarter. Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices fell 9% after issuing an in-line revenue forecast for the current quarter. Super Micro Computer was down 14% as revenue came in slightly below the Street's consensus estimates. Outside tech, Starbucks was down 15% as the coffee giant slashed its outlook following disappointing same-store sales. The healthcare space, CVS Health was down 16% to a 52 week low after posting disappointing earnings and cutting its profit guidance, and headed for its worst day since November 2009.

The 10-year Treasury yield briefly dropped below 4.6% following Powell's comments, alleviating any investor fears of a possible rate hike in the future. However, there may not be any rate cuts this year as inflation remains stubbornly high.

Commodities for the most part were lower today. The price of oil was down 3% as oil stocks drift lower. Bitcoin was down 4% to a two month low.

The markets are coming off a dismal April when the S&P and the Nasdaq both posted losses of more than 4%. The Dow fell 5% for its worst monthly performance since September 2022.