Day Traders Diary

12/29/2008

With three days to go, thee major averages open mostly higher lifted by oil and other commodities stocks due to tensions in the Middle East. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 5 points to 8,520 led by Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and Alcoa. The S&P 500 index opened unchanged at 872. The Nasdaq Composite fell 2 points to 1,527. The Israelis continue to pound the Gaza Stripe and Palestine in retaliation to attacks from last week. This is lifting oil and many of the other commodities. Dow Chemical is the dog of the day, down 20% after Kuwait scrapped plans for a $17.4 billion joint venture with the firm. The financials are all lower. Credit Suisse is up a percent even though they admitted to losing nearly a billion dollars to the Madoff scandal. The retailers are all lower following a miserable holiday. The techs are lower. HP is modestly higher on a positive Barrons piece. And that's about it for the positive news. The averages moved lower after the open. The Dow dropped 60 points. The Nasdaq declined 24 points. Most traders and investors are done with 2008, looking forward to 2009.
Through the morning the averages moved lower including the commodity stocks. Oil has reversed course, dropping into the red. In the afternoon the Dow remained weak down over 100 points. Oil is back in the green, but very few stocks are in the green. In the last hour the averages recovered a little. Quiet day on light volume. More of the same the next two days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 31 points at 8,483. The S&P 500 index fell 3 points to 869 while the Nasdaq Composite lost 19 points to 1,510.

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