Day Traders Diary
12/29/11
U.S. stocks opened higher Thursday, recovering some of the prior day's losses, thanks to a dip in Italian borrowing costs at a debt auction and U.S. jobless claims came in at 381,000, up from 366,000 the prior week. After dropping 139 points on Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 54 points to 12,205. The only Dow component trading lower is United Technology on a downgrade. The S&P 500 Index rose 5 points to 1,254. The Nasdaq Composite gained 6 points to 2,596. The markets are following the recent pattern of selling off one day only to recover the next day as the bad news subsides. Most stocks and sectors are trading higher including the financials. The government is conducting another stress test on the big banks with results coming out in a couple weeks. First Niagara is up 2% on an upgrade. The commodity sector continues to limp into the year end. Gold keeps moving lower wiping out a lot its' gains for the year. The retail sector remains fixed. The disappointing guidance from Sears the other day has shaken the sector. Amazon remains weak trading down 3% this morning on cautious comments from Goldman. Goldman has made a lot of cautious comments about the market fundamentals and the world economies. That's not a good sign for the first half of the year. Fossil is down 2% on a downgrade this morning. Through the first hour the Dow rose 70 points. The Nasdaq inched up 5 points as Google and Apple traded into the red. Every sector remains in the green. Through the morning and into the afternoon the averages crept higher. The Dow rose over 100 points. The Nasdaq rose 18 points as Amazon, Google, and Apple have turned around. In the last hour the Dow recovered all of the losses from yesterday. Funny how that happens. the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 135 points, or 1.1%, at 12,287, leaving the blue chips up 6.1% since the end of 2010. The S&P 500 advanced 13 points, or 1.1%, to 1,263, back in the black for the year. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 23 points to end at 2,613, still in the red for the year.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.