Day Traders Diary

8/3/12

U.S. stocks started sharply ahead on Friday, shaving weekly losses, after the July nonfarm payrolls report proved better than expected, even as the unemployment rate rose to 8.3%. Market analysts also pointed to speculation that Spain would soon make a formal request for aid, with that nation's 10-year government yields falling under 7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 169 points, or 1.3%, to 13,047. The S&P 500 index climbed 18 points, or 1.4%, to 1,383. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 36 points, or 1.3%, to 2,946. Pretty impressive rally as investors focus on the bright side seeing an improvement in US employment. The better than expected data has the risk on trade this morning. The techs are sharply higher with all the big caps up 1.2% or better. LinkedIn is jumping 13% on better than expected earnings. SAP has to pay Oracle $306 million for copyright infringement yet the stock is higher by 3%. Oracle is higher by a percent and a half. Every sector is trading higher this morning. Stocks trading higher on earnings include CBS, St Joe, Kraft, Toyota, P&G, Fluor, and American Water. In the energy space CF Industries is higher by 5% on an upgrade. The company will report earnings next week. Agrium is unchanged on earnings while rare earth metal play, Molycorp is down 21% on disappointing earnings. Through the first hour the averages kept pushing higher with the Dow jumping 220 points and the Nasdaq rising 55 points. Investors are warming up to this market again. Through the morning and into the afternoon the averages moved pretty much sideways. Very few stocks are in the red. In fact Verizon is the only Dow component to trade in the red. In the last hour the averages drifted off the highs, but not by much. What a turnaround. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 217 points, or 1.7%, to 13,096, up 0.2% for the week. The S&P 500 index added 25 points, or 1.9%, to 1,390, leaving it 0.4% higher from last week's close. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 58 points, or 2%, to 2,967.90, a weekly rise of 0.3%.

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