Day Traders Diary

4/30/09

It's the last day of the month and what a month it has been. The S&P 500 is up over 10% for April, best month in a long time. The markets are opening higher thanks to a slew of corporate reports topping expectations. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 65 points to 8,251. The S&P 500 Index added 8 points to 882, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 19 points to 1,731. Everything looks pretty good so far. The retail sector continues to shine. Starbucks, Skechers, Office Max, and Kelloggs are all up over 8% thanks to solid earnings. In the tech sector Flextronics and Akamai are higher thanks to earnings. Intel is up 4% due to an upgrade. Google is up 2% back to $400 a share. The financials are performing well this morning. Aflac, Visa, and Annaly Capital are higher thanks to earnings. Bank of America is higher by 4% even though Ken Lewis lost his Chairman position. Travelers is down by 5% even though they beat by 3 cents. Other stocks trading higher due to earnings include Tyco, Comcast, Newell Rubbermaid, Apache, Kodak, International Paper, Apache, and Dow Chemical. P&G, Cigna, Exxon Mobil, and Newmont Mining are lower following earnings. After the first hour, the Dow was up over 100 points touching 8300. The Nasdaq rose 38 points. Through the morning, the averages remained strong, but off the highs. During the lunch hour and through the afternoon the rally evaporated, faling into the red. In the last hour, the averages clawed back to the unchanged level. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 17 points to end at 8,168, giving the blue-chip index a gain of 7.3% for April. The S&P 500 declined 83 cents to 872, which translates to an advance of 9.4% for April, the index's best monthly rise since March 2000. The Nasdaq Composite rose 5 points, or 0.3%, to finish at 1,717, leaving the technology-laden index with a monthly gain of 12%, its best gain since October 2002.

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.