Day Traders Diary

04/10/2012

U.S. stocks opened slightly negative on Tuesday, unable to shake off the prior session's steep losses following weakness overseas once again. Three regional Federal Reserve presidents will be speaking today which may cause some more market volatility. The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened down 15 points to 12,915. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slipped a point to 1,381. The Nasdaq Composite Index managed a gain, rising 5 points to 3,052 thanks to Apple. Apple rose a percent this morning surpassing the $600 billion market cap. Amazing. The rest of the techs are holding up as well. Dell is higher by 2% on an upgrade. Google and IBM are modestly higher on positive analyst comments. Qualcomm is unchanged on an upgrade. AOl is lower by 2% even though it was upgraded, although yesterday's 40% rally was pretty impressive. Sony is the dog of the day down 7% after lowering guidance. A company that sells a lot of Sony's products, Best Buy is also under pressure down 3% as their CEO is stepping down. The rest of the consumer discretionary sector is under pressure although Supervalu is jumping 6% on earnings. Harley Davidson is higher by 2% on an upgrade. Through the first hour the Dow pushed lower with the Nasdaq holding up thanks to Apple. The financials are trying to hold in there. AIG and Raymond James are higher on upgrades. Energy, materials, industrials, and transports are under pressure If it wasn't for Apple, it wouldn't be a pretty day. Through the morning the averages kept pushing lower with no bounces. Heading into the last hour the Dow fell 200 points with the Nasdaq dropping 50 points. Apple went from up 7 points to down 8 points. Europe is roaring its' ugly head once again. In the last hour the averages moved back toward the lows. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 213 points, or 1.7%, at 12,715, worst sell off this year. The S&P 500 fell 23 points, or 1.7%, to 1,358. For both, it was the fifth straight session of losses, the longest losing streak of the year. The Nasdaq Composite fell 55 points, or 1.8%, to 2,991, its first close below 3,000 in nearly a month.

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