Day Traders Diary

8/13/12

U.S. stocks started slightly lower Monday after concerns about Asian economic growth took some air out of the benchmark indexes' extended weekly winning streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 39 points to 13,169. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 3 points to 3,018. The S&P 500 fell 3 points to 1,403. Ahead of the open, Japan reported economic growth slowed to a 1.4% pace in the three months to June from 5.5% in the prior quarter. And brokerages cut their outlooks for China growth yet the major averages continue to hold up well. Quite day on the earnings and analyst confront. In the tech sector, Apple and Google keep creeping higher. Both were upgraded. IBM continues to bump up against the $200 level. Salesforce.com is up 3% on positive analyst comments. Cisco Systems is quiet ahead of earnings on Wednesday. The energy space continues to perk up. Conoco Phillips is higher on an upgrade. Pembina Pipeline is higher on an upgrade. In the retail space, Barrons wrote positive articles on GameStop and Sears over the weekend. Both are higher by more than 2%. Campbell Soup and Sears are higher by more than 2% thanks to upgrades. Through the first hour the recent trend continues with the averages battling back on initial weakness. However as the morning progressed, the averages drifted back lower, pushing to new lows. Apple and Google look good, but everything else is in the red. In the afternoon the averages fought back as they've consistently done. Google keeps pushing higher now up 2.5%. Apple also looks good, but the rest of the market is quiet. In the last hour the Nasdaq nudged into the green while the Dow tried to rebound only to pull back into the close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 38 points at 13,169. The S&P 500 lost a point to 1,404. The Nasdaq Composite ended up a point at 3,022.

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