Day Traders Diary

4/17/09

U.S. stocks on Friday opened mostly lower due to profit-taking as investors sorted through earnings from Citigroup and General Electric. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 7 points to 8,133. The S&P 500 Index declined a point to 863 while the Nasdaq Composite fell 10 points to 1,660. GE and Citigroup were trading higher pre-market after both companies beat estimates. Citigroup and most of the financials traded lower once the markets opened. JP Morgan is lower following a downgrade. GE is unchanged while regional bank, BB&T is up 3% after beating estimates by 17 cents. Google easily beat estimates last night, but sales were light. The stock is trading higher. Motorola and Nokia are modestly higher following upgrades. Corning opened higher thanks to an upgrade with a $18 price target. In the retail space Home Depot, Lowes, and American Eagle are all higher thanks to upgrades. Mattel is jumping 10% even though they missed estimates. Charlotte Russe is up 4% as they beat estimates by 6 cents. Gamestop is down 4% even though they reaffirmed guidance. After the first half an hour, the Dow remained in the green. The Nasdaq's decline was only 4 points. Through the morning the averages drifted lower on lackluster interest. Volume is higher than average due to option expiration. The healthcare providers are one of the weakest sectors. Wellpoint, Unitedhealth Group, and Aetna are all down 4%. Entering the lunch hour, the Dow recovered thanks to the financials. American Express is up 6%, Bank of America is up 4%, and regional bank, BB&T is now up 14%. In the afternoon, more of the same. The averages slowly improved along with the financials. In the last hour, the rally fizzled. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up just 5 points at 8,131, its highest close since February 9th. The blue-chip index tallied a weekly gain of 0.6%. The S&P 500 added 4 points to 869, a 1.5% rise from last week's finish. The technology-laden Nasdaq Composite advanced 2 points to end at 1,673, up 1.2% for the week.

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