Day Traders Diary
04/03/2012
U.S. stocks began mostly lower on Tuesday ahead of a Commerce Department report on factory orders in February and the Fed comments out this afternoon. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 12 points to 13,251. The S&P 500 Index dipped 2 points to 1,417. The Nasdaq Composite gained 5 points to 3,124. A quiet start to the day with limited news. We'll start will Apple as we could every day. A couple upgrades with a second price target of $1000 has the stock trading at another new all time high. IBM is also trading at a new high. The other techs are quiet. F5 Networks is higher on an upgrade. Google was upgraded and Qualcomm hiked their dividend, but both stocks are modestly lower. Netflix is lower on a downgrade. The financials are all modestly lower. Fifth Third is modestly higher on an upgrade. US Bancorp is lower on a downgrade. The Royal Bank of Canada is taking a hit on news of an investigation into improper trading. The energy, utilities, consumer staples, and material sectors are all lower this morning. Utility firm, Dominion lowered guidance due to the warm winter, but the stock is only modestly lower. Another defensive stock, Philip Morris is lower on a downgrade. Schlumberger is higher on an upgrade. In the retail space Ford reported strong March sales, but the stock is barley higher. GM is down 4% after reporting their numbers. Autozone is up 2% on an upgrade. Urban Outfitter is up 4% after raising guidance in an 8-K. Best Buy is higher even though it was downgraded. Coke is modestly lower on a downgrade. Through the first hour the averages held up with the Nasdaq moving into the green thanks to Apple. The Dow is only modestly in the red. Heading into the lunch hour the averages drifted lower. Consumer Discretionary is holding up, but most sectors are falling further into the red. At 2 o'clock, the Fed minutes were released implying there would be no further Fed easing. The US dollar rose causing the averages to sell off. The Dow fell as much as 130 points before rebounding. The Nasdaq fell 30 points before rebounding. In the last hour the averages recovered a lot of the losses. One stock not selling off is Apple. Amazing stock. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 64 points to 13,199. The S&P 500 Index lost 5 points to 1,413. The Nasdaq Composite fell 6 points to 3,113.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.