Day Traders Diary

8/7/09

U.S. stocks rallied at the open Friday, after the government reported the economy shed a smaller-than-forecast 247,000 jobs in July, while the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell back to 9.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 85 points to 9,342, with all but one of its 30 components advancing. The S&P 500 index rose 9 points to 1,005 while the Nasdaq Composite gained 21 points, or 1%, to 1,995. The earnings keep coming in better than expected. Beazer Homes, Chiquita Brands, Crocs, and CBS are all up over 9% on earnings. The techs are performing well. HP is up a percent on an upgrade. Computer Science is higher after easily beating earnings estimates. Google is up a percent to new recent highs. The financials are fatigued, but holding in there. Citigroup is up 5% to $4 a share. The company is looking to spin off more divisions and assets, Jim Cramer at CNBC was bullish last night on the bank titan, and two insiders bought 2 million shares in the last week. Manulife is lower on a downgrade while RBS is lower by 13% after reporting a quarterly loss. After the first hour the averages remained strong, but off the highs. Most investors were looking for a sell off today and we may still get it later in the day. That wouldn't be a bad thing. We've had a great run. So much for that sell off. The averages rebounded after the first hour with the Dow jumping 150 points to 9400. The Nasdaq jumped 33 points to 2006. Both levels not seen since October. In the afternoon, more of the same. The major averages remain strong near the highs of the day. The railroad and transportation stocks in general are performing great. The Dow Jones Transportation Average us up 4% today and up 25% in the last month. Not bad. In the last hour, we saw a little profit taking. Finally. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 114 points, or 1.2%, to 9,370, its highest close since early November. The S&P 500 gained 13 points, or 1.3%, to 1,010 and the Nasdaq Composite ended up 27 points, or 1.4%, at 2,000. For the week, the S&P 500 gained 2.3%, the Dow-30 added 2.2% and the Nasdaq rose 1.1%. Another great week.

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