Day Traders Diary

12/16/08

The market averages are set to open higher thanks to better than expected earnings from Goldman Sachs and Best Buy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 77 points to 8,642. The S&P 500 rose 12 points to 880. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 21 points to 1,529. So far so good. Goldman is up 6%. Most of the financials are higher except for Bank of America. Friedman Billings Ramsey downgraded Bank of America with a $9 target. Thanks for that. Friedman also downgraded American Express, but the stock is modestly higher. Wells Fargo is higher on an upgrade. Best Buy is up 14% helping lift the retail sector. Best Buy reiterated guidance for next year. The commodities look good. The fertilizers were upgraded. Deere is higher on an upgrade. The techs look good in general except for Apple. Apple is down for a second straight day on concerns of slowing demand. After the first hour, the Dow was up nearly 100 points. The Nasdaq rose 27 points. Through the morning the averages remained strong. Goldman and Best Buy keep improving. Volume is, however, light ahead of the Fed meeting this afternoon. The Fed is pulling out all the stops. Today they cut rates by 75 basis points with a target rate between zero and 0.25%. They also went on in a lengthily statement saying they will keep rates low for a long time and continue to use all their tools to get the economy back on its feet including buying mortgage-back securities. The news shot the Dow up 250 points and the Nasdaq up 53 points. The financials and insurance stocks look good. Even Cramer is bullish on the financials once again. Ge is up 4% after reaffirming numbers. Entering the last the averages kept pushing higher. The Dow shot up over 300 points. The Nasdaq rose 75 points. Thank you Mr. Bernanke. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 359 points, or 4.2%, at 8,924. The S&P 500 gained 44 points, or 5.1%, to 913. The Nasdaq Composite rose 81 points, or 5.4%, to 1,589.

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