Day Traders Diary
9/1/11
U.S. stocks wobbled at Thursday's start, with the major indexes struggling for limited gains after the government said jobless claims fell last week, ahead of Friday's monthly payrolls report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 13 points to 11,627. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index added half a point to 1,219. The Nasdaq Composite rose 5 points to 2,585. The averages teetered back and forth only to sell off into the lunch hour. The financials are taking a hit as Goldman Sachs is making news. First they lowered their estimates for August payroll numbers out tomorrow. Then an analyst downgraded the stock and then the Federal government indicated they will further their investigation into the firm. As expected, the stock dropped over 3% as did most of the big cap banks. Toronto Dominion is one of the few financials higher thanks to better than expected earnings. Here we go again. Most sectors succumbed to profit-taking. The techs are getting hit including Apple. Ciena is jumping 20% following better than expected earnings, helping lift the whole sector including Cisco Systems. The auto sector is trading sharply lower even though on the surface, August sales looked good. Even the defensive stocks are lower. Verizon upped their dividend however, the stock is lower. Through the afternoon the averages drifted lower with the Dow falling nearly 100 points. That's not a good sign. In the last hour the averages pushed lower on fears the employment data out tomorrow won't be good. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 119 points, or 1%, at 11,493, after a four-session winning streak. The S&P 500 shed 14 points, or 1.2%, to end at 1,204. The Nasdaq Composite lost 33 points, or 1.3%, to 2,546.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.