Day Traders Diary

7/20/09

U.S. stocks opened higher on Monday, extending the Dow Jones Industrial Average's longest winning streak so far this year thanks in part to Goldman Sachs raising their year end target for the S&P to 1060, 13% higher from present levels. Investors in CIT are breathing easier on reports of a deal to keep the lender out of bankruptcy. The Dow Jones gained 72 points to 8,816. The S&P 500 Index added 7 points to 947 while the Nasdaq Composite rose 10 points to 1,897. Another big week for earnings. This morning, earnings are coming in from M&T Bank, Halliburton, Johnson Controls, and Weatherford. Only Weatherford is trading lower. The financials are mixed. M&T looks good, but the big banks like Citigroup and Bank of America are lower. A number of upgrades in the tech sector. Cisco Systems is up 2% on an upgrade. Microsoft, EMC, AMD, Apple, Texas Instruments, Broadcom, and Nvidia were also all upgraded. Not bad. The big winner so far this morning is Human Genome Sciences. The stock is up 200% on positive phase three results for a Lupus drug. After the first hour, the rally started to fizzle, giving up half the gains. Caterpillar is strong within the Dow up 5% on an upgrade. Through the morning the averages held their gains. Goldman Sachs is jumping 3 points on a positive piece in Barrons over the weekend. IBM is continuing its' rally from last week as well. Amazon is up 2% ahead of earnings later in the week. In the afternoon, the averages worked back toward the highs of the day. Most stocks are trading higher. Within the financials, Citigroup and Bank of America are weak on analyst comments. Two chicken producers, Tyson and Sanderson Farms are lower on downgrades. Everything else looks pretty good. Entering the last hour, the Dow accelerated jumping 100 points. The Nasdaq rose 18 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average held the gains finishing up 104 points, or 1.2%, to end at 8,848. The S&P 500 Index added 10 points, or 1.1%, to 951, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 22 points, or 1.2%, to 1,909.

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