Day Traders Diary

5/24/11

U.S. stocks posted modest gains at Tuesday's start, with energy shares leading a bounce back from the prior day's finish, which had equities at their lowest level in a month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 28 points to 12,408. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 4 points to 1,321. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 4 points to 2,763. The commodities are getting a boost from Goldman Sachs reversing their bearish call on oil, copper, and zinc. Most oil and oil drilling stocks are higher this morning. Diamond Offshore is up 2% even though it was upgraded. Freeport and Cliffs Natural Resources are up over 2%. The fertilizers are up for a second straight day. Mosaic received a second upgrade in as many days. Sanderson Farms is higher following earnings. El Paso is jumping 7% on indications they will split the company into two. The financials opened higher this morning, but not by much. They can't seem to get going. AIG is lower ahead of the Treasury's sale of their stake in the firm. The techs are struggling as well. Apple is lower once again on supply chain concerns. Research in Motion is lower on a downgrade. Saleforce.com is jumping over 2% on an upgrade. Cree is higher on an upgrade and a contract win. Google is one of the few big cap techs trading higher. In the retail space a couple of earnings reports from AutoZone and DSW. Both are up over 6%. After the open the rally fizzled with the major averages dropping into the red. Only the commodity sector still looks good. In the afternoon the averages slowly recovered with a few more stocks popping into the green only to sell back off into the close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 25 points at 12,356. The Nasdaq Composite declined 12 points to 2,746, its' lowest close since April 19. The S&P 500 turned lower on the last stretch of trading, ending off a point at 1,316.

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