Day Traders Diary
5/8/09
May 8, 2009U.S. stocks started higher on Friday, with investors heartened by Labor Department data illustrating a slowdown in job losses in April. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 99 points to 8,509. McDonalds is up 3% on better than expected April sales. The S&P 500 rose 11 points to 918. The Nasdaq Composite gained 16 points to 1,733. The bank stress test results are in, pretty much in line with expectations. Federal regulators have ordered 10 of the nation's biggest banks on Thursday to raise a total of $75 billion in extra capital. The banks are mixed so far. Citigroup and Bank of America are higher even though both have to raise additional capital. Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley are modestly lower after announcing public offerings to raise additional capital. Metlife, JP Morgan, PNC, State Street, and Capital One look great due to the fact they don't need to raise any more capital. RBS is up 14% even though they lost $1.3 billion in the quarter. Allstate is down 10% following dismal results. The commodities continue to preform well. The retail sector is succumbing to profit-taking. Target is up 2%, but Lowes, Aeropostale, American Eagle, Best Buy, and Gap are lower by at least 4%. Crocs and Activision are lower following earnings. The tech sector is quiet this morning. Nvidia is down 10% following earnings. IBM, Apple, Intel, Cisco Systems, and Texas Instruments are lower. Google is up 2% following a couple of upgrades. After the first hour and through the morning the averages remain in the green, but off the highs. In the afternoon, the averages tried to sell off only to rebound to new highs each time. Not bad. Entering the last hour, the Dow jumped as much as 170 points before pulling back in the last hour. The Nasdaq rose 32 points before pulling back in the last hour. Can't complain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 164 points, or 2%, to 8,574, giving the blue chips a weekly gain of 4.4%. The S&P 500 rose 21 points, or 2.4%, to 929, up 5.9% for the week. The Nasdaq Composite gained 22 points, 1.3%, to 1,739, up 1.2% from the week-ago close.
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