Day Traders Diary
6/21/11
U.S. stocks started with mild but broad gains Tuesday, supported by expectations that Europe was moving closer to a near-term resolution of Greece's debt problems. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 40 points to 12,122 led by Caterpillar and Chevron. The S&P 500 added 5 points to 1,283. The Nasdaq Composite added 7 points to 2,636. The commodities look good this morning leading all the sectors. Even the rare earth metal stocks are higher. The retailers continue to perform well. Best Buy is up 3% after initiating a $5 billion share buyback along with a hike in the dividend. Not bad. Whole Foods is jumping 6% on an upbeat outlook. The grocery stocks are performing great of late. Under Armour and Wendys are higher on upgrades. Carnival reported earnings and lowered estimates, but the news has been priced into the stock. Walgreens is down 6% following earnings. Express Scripts is also lower after Walgreen agreed to drop them for Aetna's pharmaceutical prescription business. In the tech space Apple is rebounding after getting hit the last week. EMC, Riverbed Tech, and F5 Networks are higher on upgrades. Motorola Mobility is lower on a downgrade. The chips are struggling. Freescale Semi is down even though it was upgraded. Micron had their numbers cut, yet the stock is modestly higher. Intel is up a little. The financials are higher, but they continue to struggle. Discover, Progressive, and Duke Realty are modestly higher on upgrades. Jefferies is down 2% after missing estimates. Through the morning the averages slowly rallied, building on yesterday's turnaround. By the lunch hour, the Dow was up over 100 points while the Nasdaq rose 50 points or 2%. A nice rally for once. Lets' hope Europe doesn't screw this up. A minor pullback in the afternoon only accelerated the rally once again. In the last hour the Dow closed off its highs while the Nasdaq remained strong. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 109 points at 12,190, its best day in a week, led by a 3.3% rise in Caterpillar. The S&P 500 gained 17 points, or 1.3%, to 1,295 led by a 2.6% gain in its resource subsector. The Nasdaq Composite gained 57 points, or 2.2%, to 2,687.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.