Day Traders Diary

11/11/13

The S&P 500 added just over a point (+1.28) after spending the entire session inside of a five-point range. Excluding the first 30 minutes of action, the benchmark index was confined to a two-point range as many participants elected to sit today's session out.
With the bond market closed for Veterans Day and no market-moving economic or company news, equity indices drifted near their flat lines throughout the session. Small caps outperformed the broader market, but the Russell 2000's gain was limited to just 0.1%.
Meanwhile, the S&P crept higher as six of ten sectors registered gains. Financials (+0.1%) and health care (+0.2%) paced the slight advance, but only the health care sector was able to end among the leaders.
The countercyclical group received support from drug makers amid news Shire (SHPG 135.33, +0.93) will acquire ViroPharma (VPHM 49.42, +10.04) for $50 per share, representing a 27.0% premium to Friday's closing price. Biotechnology climbed throughout the day, and the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 205.54, +1.36) advanced 0.7%.
Unlike health care, the remaining countercyclical sectorsconsumer staples (-0.1%), utilities (+0.02%), and telecom services (-0.3%)underperformed.
With regard to cyclical groups, financials ended in-line with the S&P while consumer discretionary (+0.2%), energy (+0.2%), and technology (+0.1%) eked out slim gains. On the downside, industrials (-0.03%) and materials (-0.1%) lagged throughout the day.
Momentum names traded in mixed fashion following last week's group-wide weakness. Facebook (FB 46.20, -1.33) and LinkedIn (LNKD 211.66, -3.51) registered respective losses of 2.8% and 1.6% while Priceline.com (PCLN 1096.50, +23.30) gained 2.2% and Tesla (TSLA 144.70, +6.75) rose 4.9%.
Trading volume was well below average as just over 530 million shares changed hands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
There is no notable economic data on tomorrow's calendar.

Nasdaq +29.8% YTD
Russell 2000 +29.7% YTD
S&P 500 +24.2% YTD
DJIA +20.4% YTD

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