Day Traders Diary
1/20/12
U.S. stocks started off on a cautious note Friday, weighed by unease over Greek debt talks and some disappointing earnings, and after three straight days of gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 9 points to 12,633. The S&P 500 fell 3 points 1,312. The Nasdaq Composite lost 8 points to 2,780. The earnings keep flooding in. Tech titans Intel, Microsoft, IBM and Google all reported last night. Only Google is lower by 50 points or 8%. Ouch. Juniper, Cisco, Nokia, and Research in Motion all received upgrades, but the stocks are not reacting. The financials are quiet this morning. The credit card companies like Capital One and American Express are getting hit following disappointing earnings. Visa and American Express are lower as well. Fifth Third is also lower following earnings. SunTrust is bucking the trend up 5% on earnings. The energy and commodity spaces are getting hit except for the fertilizer stocks. Agrium and Mosaic are higher on upgrades. Noble Corp is higher on an upgrade and Schlumberger is higher following earnings. Through the morning the broader market gave up more ground. Although the big techs like Intel, IBM, and Microsoft remain strong holding up the Dow. In the afternoon more of the same. The Dow held up thanks to the techs and financials. Intel and Microsoft are making new 52 week highs. Google and now Apple are lower. The rest of the market is unchanged to slightly lower. Intuitive Surgical is lower by 6.5% on disappointing earnings. Rival, MAKO Surgical is lower as well. In the last hour the Dow kept pushing higher led by the techs and financials. A good way to end the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 96 points at 12,720, led by a 5.7% rally in Microsoft and a 4.4% gain in IBM's shares. The S&P 500 ended up 9 cents at 1,315. The Nasdaq Composite lost a point to 2,786. The major indexes rose 2% to nearly 3% for the week, the third straight week of gains.
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