Day Traders Diary

11/21/11

U.S. stocks opened lower on Monday ahead of an expected announcement from the congressional super committee that it had failed to reach a deficit-reduction agreement. Surging bond yields in Greece, Italy, and Spain are adding to the pain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 147 points to 11,649. The S&P 500 Index fell 15 points to 1,200. The Nasdaq Composite Index declined 33 points to 2,538. The averages quickly moved lower led by financials. Morgan Stanley is down 4% on an upgrade. Imagine if it was downgraded. Not much good news out there. Besides the financials, most other sectors are getting hit. Commodities don't look good. Potash is lower on a downgrade. Kodiak Oil & Gas is one of the few commodities higher on an upgrade. The techs are all getting hit. HP is down 4% ahead of earnings. Brocade is down 3% ahead of earnings. Research in Motion is down 4% to a new 52 week low on a downgrade. Salesforce.com is only down a percent on an upgrade. Seagate is modestly higher on a $525 million award thanks to a legal dispute with Western Digital. Through the morning the averages pushed lower with the Dow dropping 300 points. The Nasdaq declined 70 points. Crazy, crazy, morning. A limited number of stocks are trading higher. Hibbett Sports is up 2% on an upgrade. Dicks Sporting Goods is unchanged after announcing a 50 cent first time dividend last week. In the afternoon the averages moved sideways near the lows of the day. Typically the week of Thanksgiving is a quiet one. Not this week. In the last hour the averages rebounded a little so at least we won't close on the lows. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 248 points, or 2.1%, at 11,547. All Dow components were lower, led by a 5% drop in Bank of America. The S&P 500 lost 22 points, or 1.9%, to 1,192, led by a retreat in financial stocks. All 10 S&P 500 subsectors were lower. The Nasdaq Composite fell 49 points, or 1.9%, to 2,523. U.S. stocks are broadly lower for the year.

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