Day Traders Diary

4/5/11

U.S. stock indexes opened higher on Wednesday as investors banked on positive earnings. Seed producer Monsanto helped sentiment, reporting a 15% rise in second-quarter profit compared to a year ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 49 points to 12,443. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index climbed 6 points to 1,338. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 17 points to 2,809. Ironically, Monsanto is trading down 3% as investors expected even better results. The fertilizers are struggling to rally following Monsanto's earnings. The rest of the commodity sector looks good. Freeport McMoran is up 2% on rumors of takeovers in the sector, however, Freeport would be the acquirer and not the acquiree. Cliffs Natural Resources is trading up 1.5% to a new high. The oils look good as well. Chevron is trading at a new 52 week high. Valero and the rest of the refining market is trading higher on positive analyst comments. The techs are higher after showing some weakness yesterday. Broadcom is up 4% on an upgrade. Google is higher even though it was downgrades. Ebay is higher on an upgrade. Juniper is lower on rumors Verizon is cancelling orders. After the first hour the averages remained in the green, but off the highs. The financials are perking up even as the commodities are pulling back. The fertilizers are in the red. In the retail space Urban Outfitters, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Diamond Foods are higher on upgrades. Toyota is lower on production disruptions, but Ford, GM, and Tata Motors look good. Through the morning the Nasdaq gave up its' gains. The commodity sector is now in the red while the financials and the big cap techs like Cisco Systems and HP look good. In the afternoon the Nasdaq rebounded lifted by Cisco, Microsoft, HP, and Google. Apple is still in the red. The Dow and the financials improved as well. In the last hour the gains held up, but the commodities closed in the red. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 32 points at 12,426, led by a nearly 5% rally in Cisco Systems. The S&P 500 rose 2 points to 1,335. The Nasdaq Composite added 8 points to 2,799.

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