Day Traders Diary

5/17/11

U.S. stocks open solidly in the red following a number of earnings reports that haven't met expectations. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 73 points to 12,477. The S&P 500 lost 5 points to 1,324. The Nasdaq Composite fell 13 points to 2,769. HP shares fell 6% following dismal guidance. The new CEO is not getting it done. Another Dow component, Walmart is trading lower following earnings results. Home Depot is bucking the trend trading up 2% following earnings and raised guidance. The retail sector is all about the haves and have nots. Urban Outfitters and Saks are trading higher following earnings. Dicks and TJX are lower due to disappointing earnings and guidance. Best Buy is trading higher following hedge fund disclosures showing one top money manager took a big stake in the firm. The financials are opening modestly higher even though the New York Attorney General is looking to investigate Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America for some of their mortgage practices. I thought we were done with this. The NYSE Euronext is down once again after merger talks have broke down due to regulatory concerns. The Nasdaq is holding up better than yesterday when the index got clobbered. Apple, Google, and Research in Motion are higher. After the first hour the averages remained weak with the Dow down 50 points and the Nasdaq down 11 points. Through the morning the Dow pushed lower falling 100 points. HP is dragging down the Dow and the PC related stocks. HP is now down 9% blowing through their 52 week low. That's not good. In the afternoon through the last hour the techs battled back led by Google, IBM, and Research in Motion. HP remains weak down 8% with a plethora of downgrades. Not a good sign. The financials also look good, but their rebounds only last a day or two. A couple of commodities were up, but not many. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 68 points at 12,479. The S&P 500 fell just 49 cents to 1,328. The Nasdaq Composite closed up less than a point at 2,783.

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