Day Traders Diary

04/11/2012

U.S. stocks opened sharply higher Wednesday after five straight down days as investors find cheer in an unexpected first-quarter profit from aluminum producer Alcoa. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 104 points to 12,822. The S&P 500 gained 14 points to 1,372. The Nasdaq Composite added 26 points to 3,018.

Alcoa is trading up 8% helping lift the commodity sector. A select number of oil drillers like Noble Corp, Transocean, Rowan, and Diamond Offshore are all higher on upgrades. A machinery agriculture company, Titan Machinery is jumping 15% on strong earnings and better than expected guidance. In the tech space, Apple is bouncing back. Apple and Google are higher by a percent. A few techs are lower. VMware is lower by 2% on in-line guidance. F5 Networks is lower on an upgrade. The dog in the tech space is Nokia down 15% on lowered guidance. The financials are all rebounding this morning. Genworth is up 6% on an upgrade. Bank of America is higher on an upgrade. Metlife and Hartford are higher as well on positive analyst comments. Annaly is higher after reporting their commentary on the first quarter. In the retail space Best Buy is bouncing back after their CEO stepped down yesterday. Supervalu is higher by 4% on an upgrade. TravelZoo is the diamond up 27% on news the company is considering selling the business. Through the first hour the averages remained strong. Very few stocks are trading lower. Through the morning and into the afternoon the averages held up even as more stocks dipped into the red. Even Apple fell into the red as the government sues the company for fixing prices with publishers. Apple certainly has the cash for a settlement. Entering the last hour and into the close the averages held ending where they started the day. Industrials, financials, telecom, and transports led the rally. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 89 points at 12,805. The S&P 500 added 10 points to 1,368. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 25 points to 3,016 even with Apple in the red.

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