Day Traders Diary
10/14/11
U.S. stocks opened higher Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average joining the Nasdaq Composite in positive territory for the year, as investors welcomed a surge in retail sales and an upbeat earnings report from search engine Google. The Dow industrials rose 125 points to 11,603. The S&P 500 climbed 17 points to 1,220. The Nasdaq added 39 points to 2,659. The techs keep leading the averages higher. Google is jumping 6% thanks to better than expected earnings. Plenty of upgrades in the tech sector. The list includes Juniper Networks, IBM, Marvell, SAP, Apple (of course), EMC, F5 Networks, NetApp, VMware, HP, and Cisco. Cisco looks to be breaking out of a 4 month range. Adobe is jumping 6% on prospects of a new technology called, HTML 5 for cell phones. A few techs are lower. Research in Motion is down a percent and Intel is having trouble participating in the rally. The commodities are having a good day, all performing well. Every sector is trading up. The one sector lagging the rest is of course the financials. Next week is a big week for the big bank reporting earnings. Webster Financial is down 3% after reporting earnings. Ameriprise is up 2% on an upgrade. The insurance stocks are outperforming the banks. MetLife and Hartford are up over 2.5%. In the retail space Mattel is down 2% following lackluster earnings and an announced share buyback. Pier 1 is up 2% after announcing a $100 million buyback. Gap is lower by a percent even though they announced they will be shutting down 20% of their stores. It's about time. Through the first hour the averages remained strong, but off the highs. A number of the big banks have fallen into the red. Through the morning and into the afternoon the averages remained in the green, but off the highs. Not a lot of volatility. In the last hour the averages received an added surge sending the averages to new highs for the day. What a week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 166 points, or 1.5%, to 11,644. It gained 4.9% for the week, its third weekly rise and the longest weekly winning stretch since April. The S&P 500 added 20.92 points, or 1.7%, to 1,224.58. It gained 6% for the week. The Nasdaq Composite rose 47 points, or 1.8%, to 2,667. It's up 7.6% for the week. The Dow and the Nasdaq are now higher for the year, while the S&P 500 is off 2.6%.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.