Day Traders Diary

7/23/09

U.S. added to early gains on Thursday after news that U.S. sales of existing homes rose for a third straight month in June. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 91 points to 8,973, well off a morning low of 8,866. The S&P 500 index rose 10 points to 964, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 23 points, or 1.2%, to 1,949. The earnings keep flooding in. Within the Dow, 3M is up 5% on good earnings, but McDonalds is lower by 3% after missing sales estimates. The techs look great. Ebay, VMWare, NCR, EMC, and Xerox are higher following earnings. Qualcomm and Netgear are lower following earnings. The transportation stocks are performing well. Union Pacific, Jetblue, and Ryder Systems are higher thanks to better than expected earnings. Other companies trading higher following good earnings include Phillip Morris, Ensco, UPS, Bristol Myers, AT&T, Kimberly Clark, Reynolds America, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Intuitive Surgical, and L-3 Communications. After the
first hour thanks to the good earnings and good housing data, the Dow jumped over 100 points touching 9000 for the first time since January. The Nasdaq rose 33 points. Through the morning the averages kept improving. Fertilizers are performing great after a quiet opening. Potash missed estimates and guided lower, yet the stock is trading up 3%. Not bad. Entering the last hour, the averages were at the highs of the day. The Dow was up 200 points. The Nasdaq rose 50 points. A lot of round numbers getting hit today in a classic short squeeze. Into the close, the averages remained strong, but off the highs of the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 188 points, or 2%, at 9,069, marking its first close above 9,000 since Jan 6th. The S&P 500 index rose 22 points, or 2.3%, to 976, its highest close since November 4th. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 47 points, or 2.5%, to 1,973, marking its 12th straight session of gains, its longest winning streak since early 1992.

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