Day Traders Diary
9/12/12
Stocks started the day higher but were only able to hold a portion of their gains in a session which saw two pullbacks to the unchanged line. After spending most of the day in the black, the S&P 500 ended higher by 0.2%.
Telecoms were broadly higher as indicated by the iShares Dow Jones US Telecom ETF (IYZ 25.22, +0.29), which added 1.2%. MetroPCS (PCS 10.31, +0.25) advanced 2.5% on rumors regarding a possible merger with another major carrier. Meanwhile, Sprint (S 5.10, +0.10) and Verizon (VZ 44.89, +0.65) settled higher by 2.0% and 1.5%, respectively.
The Dow Jones Transportation Average has been on a steady rise over the past week, and it added another 0.8% today. Airline stocks showed strength as Delta (DAL 9.50, +0.22), Southwest (LUV 9.18, +0.23), and United Continental (UAL 20.31, +0.51) all posted gains between 2.3% and 2.6%. Shipping and trucking stocks were also higher as Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG 6.72, +0.34) and Landstar (LSTR 49.62, +0.94) advanced 5.3% and 1.9%, respectively.
Financial stocks outperformed the broader market as banks continued adding to their recent gains. Goldman Sachs (GS 118.24, +1.55), JPMorgan Chase (JPM 39.92, +0.32), and Citigroup (C 33.05, +0.39) all gained near 1.0%. Meanwhile, Bank of America (BAC 8.97, -0.06) lagged the other majors with a 0.7% loss. European financials were also on the rise with Credit Suisse (CS 22.55, +1.06) and UBS (UBS 12.82, +0.26) ending higher by 4.9% and 2.1%, respectively. On the downside, Deutsche Bank (DB 42.43, -0.19) slipped 0.5% after rallying more than 55.0% since July 25th.
Chinese internet stocks were on the move after Citigroup initiated coverage of three names. Youku (YOKU 18.79, +0.94) and Sohu.com (SOHU 42.50, +1.50) received a 'buy' rating and gained 5.3% and 3.7%, respectively. Meanwhile, Renren (RENN 3.81, +0.04) added 1.1% despite receiving a 'sell' rating. Elsewhere, Yahoo! (YHOO 15.40, +0.24) rose by 1.6% as the company is expected to acquire the assets of online business-to-business trading platform, Alibaba, by the end of the week.
Shares of Facebook (FB 20.93, +1.50) jumped 7.7% after Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg participated in a Q&A session at an event in San Francisco last evening. At the event, Mr. Zuckerberg commented on mobile ads, saying that they are performing better than the ones which appear on the desktop platform. In addition, Zuckerberg called Zynga (ZNGA 3.07, +0.28) a "fundamentally strong company." Shares of ZNGA spiked 10.0% in response to the comments.
Export prices, excluding agriculture, increased by 0.4% in August after they had decreased by 1.4% in the prior month. Excluding oil, import prices were down in August by 0.2%, which follows a 0.3% decrease experienced in the prior month.
Separately, wholesale inventories were up 0.7% in July. That is higher than the increase of 0.3% which had been broadly forecast.
Tomorrow's key economic events include the Federal Open Market Committee announcing its statement and rate decision at 12:30 ET, and its economic projections at 14:00 ET. Finally, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will hold a press conference at 14:15 ET.
A handful of economic data points are scheduled to be released tomorrow. Initial and continuing claims, as well as PPI and core PPI will be released at 8:30 ET while the U.S. Treasury will report its budget at 14:00 ET.
The U.S. Treasury will hold a $13 billion, 30-yr reopening.
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.