Day Traders Diary
12/16/11
U.S. stocks open higher after a report showed the cost of living held flat in November, bolstering the Federal Reserve's take that inflation is not an issue now for the U.S. economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 92 points to 11,961. The S&P 500 added 10 points to 1,226. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 23 points to 2,564. The news out of Europe is quiet for now which means the financials are higher even as Fitch downgraded a number of them last night. Discover and US Bancorp are up 2% on upgrades. The techs are mixed. Adobe looks good up 8% after beating estimates. The chip space looks good. Qualcomm is up 2% on an upgrade. Research in Motion on the other hand is down 11% to a new 52 week low and an eight year low on another disappointing quarter and guidance. Research in Motion is a classic value trap stock. The commodity and energy space looks good. AK Steel is higher on an upgrade and in-line guidance last night. Rare Earth stocks, Molycorp and Thompson Creek are higher on positive comments. Through the first hour the averages remained strong near the highs of the day on light volume. The defensive sectors like utilities and healthcare are underperforming. Besides Research in Motion, Cablevision is down 13% to a new low as the COO stepped down today following the departure of the President last month. The stock is down 65% since June only out done by Research in Motion which is down 80% since February. A year not to remember. Through the morning the Dow drifted off the highs falling into the red during the lunch hour with IBM down 2%. The utilities and healthcare sectors are in the red. AT&T is unchanged even though they raised their dividend by a penny. A new Internet social networking firm came public today only to almost immediately fall below the IPO price. In the old days companies came public to make people money. Now they're better at losing money for investors. Through the afternoon the averages moved sideways limping into the close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 2 points at 11,866, leaving it down 2.6% from last Friday's close. The S&P 500 added 3 points to 1,219. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 14 points to 2,555. Not a good week.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.