Day Traders Diary
3/22/11
U.S. stocks opened slightly higher Tuesday, with investors hesitant to extend a winning run into a fourth consecutive session after the biggest three day gain since September. The Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 4 points to 12,041. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index opened flat at 1,298. The Nasdaq Composite added a point to 2,693. The news is mixed this morning. In the tech space Netflix, VMware, Yahoo, and Akamai are higher on upgrades. Research in Motion is higher after announcing their tablet called the Playbook will be released next month. Apple and IBM are higher, but Google is modestly lower. The commodities for the most part are lower except for the oils. Noble Corp is higher on an upgrade. The rare earth metals are trading sharply higher this morning on positive comments and news out of China that pricing has improved. The financials are quiet this morning except for Goldman Sachs which looks good. Zion Bancorp is higher on an upgrade. The insurance stocks are modestly higher. In the transportation sector the airlines are lower on cautious comments about bad weather and the Japanese earthquake disrupting some flights. Carnival Cruise is modestly lower on in line earnings. Through the morning the averages fell into the red hovering just below the unchanged level. After a big run up the preceding three days, to be flat to slightly lower today is a victory in some regards. Through the afternoon the averages continued to trade just below the unchanged level on light volume which is a good sign. Only a handful of stocks traded to the upside with the rare earth metals as the top gainers. Into the close nothing changed. The Dow Jones finished down 17 points at 12018. The Nasdaq closed down 8 points at 2683 and the S&P 500 finished down 4 points at 1293.All comments contained herein are for informational purposes only, and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. The firm does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information or make any warranties regarding results from it's usage.