Day Traders Diary

03/09/2012



U.S. stocks opened higher Friday, extending gains into a third session, after the government reported the U.S. economy added more jobs than expected in February, raising optimism about the recovery while also celebrating the third anniversary of the bear market low. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 20 points to 12,928. The S&P 500 Index climbed 2 points to 1,368. The Nasdaq Composite gained 4 points to 2,975. The financials and techs are in the lead once again. Xl Capital and JP Morgan are higher on upgrades. All the big banks are modestly higher. In the tech space, Apple is higher once again. Shocker. Qlogic and LSI are higher on upgrades. Altera is higher even though they lowered guidance last night. Texas Instruments is down after lowering guidance last night. The retail space has a lot of bright spots. Aeropostale, Ann Taylor, and Zumiez are higher following earnings. Coach, American Eagle, Dicks, and Kohls are higher on upgrades. Green Mountain Coffee is down 14% as Starbucks introduces their own K-cups for at home brewers. Starbucks is higher on this news. Carnival Cruise lower earnings dramatically this morning however the stock is higher as investors had priced in a lot of the bad news. Through the first hour the averages held on to their gains even as a few more stocks fell into the red. The healthcare space looks good. Medical device company, Cooper Company is jumping 4% on earnings. Materials and the Energy sector are under selling pressure. Rare earth stock, Molycorp is jumping 10% after making a $1.5 billion acquisition. Iron ore company, Cliffs Natural Resources is higher on an upgrade. The stock however is still lower for the year. Through the morning the averages kept improving with the Dow inching back to 13000. In the afternoon Greece announced the obvious that they would default on part of their sovereign debt. No surprise for anyone, but that did cause the averages to drift off their highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 14 points at 12,922, leaving it off 0.4% for the week. The S&P 500 climbed 4 points to 1,370, up nearly 0.1% from the week-ago close. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 17 points to 2,988, a weekly gain of 0.4%.

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