Day Traders Diary
04/23/2012
U.S. stocks declined sharply Monday as political uncertainty in Europe cast doubt on the region's ability to deal with its debt crisis and after cereal-maker Kellogg cut its 2012 forecast. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 122 points to 12,906. The S&P 500 declined 14 points, or 1.1%, to 1,363. The Nasdaq Composite tumbled 34 points, or 1.1%, to 2,966. Very few winners to start the week. Materials, energy stocks, and industrials are all taking a hit. Hess is down 2% on a downgrade. Conoco Philips is lower after missing earnings estimates. Eaton and Potlatch are modestly lower following earnings. Wolverine Worldwide is down 4% after lowering guidance. Tennant Co. is down 10% after missing numbers. Kellogg is down 5% after lowering guidance due to European weakness. That drum beat should get louder. IBM last week made similar comments. The Europe banks are getting hit this morning. Deutsche Bank is down 4%. Banco Santander was upgraded, but the stock is lower. All the US financials are lower. MasterCard is down 3.5%. DR Horton is unchanged following earnings. SunTrust is bucking the trend up 4% on earnings. In the retail space Walmart is making news on a bribery scandal in Mexico. The stock is down 4.5%. Dicks was upgraded, but the stock is lower. Dollar Thrifty is modestly higher after raising guidance. The tech space is one of the few sectors trying to hold in there. Google, Microsoft, Apple all made rallies into the green. Xerox is up 2% on earnings. Baidu.com is down 4% ahead of earnings tomorrow. LSI Logic is higher on a positive article in Barrons. Through the morning the averages moved lower only to rebound to where they opened. A number of techs and financials have moved into the green like Google, Apple, Corning, JP Morgan, and MetLife. In the afternoon the averages slowly improved thanks to techs and a select number of financials. In the last hour the averages kept improving into the close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 102 points at 12,927. Wal-Mart Stores fell 4.66%, its worst day since August, on a report of alleged corruption at a Mexico unit. The S&P 500 lost 11 points to 1,366. The Nasdaq declined 30 points to 2970 as Apple couldn't finish in the green.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.