Day Traders Diary

8/18/09

U.S. stocks on Tuesday started mildly higher, with financial and consumer discretionary shares fronting the bounce back after the prior session's big hit. Better than expected inflation data is also lending support. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 38 points to 9,174. American Express is up 3% on an upgrade. The S&P 500 Index rose 3 points to 983, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 12 points to 1,942. The retailers are in focus. Home Depot and Saks are trading higher on better than expected earnings. Target and Dillards are both up 5% after easily beating estimates. Urban Outfitters is up 2% thanks to positive comments from James Cramer last night. TJX is lower by 3% even though they beat earnings by a penny. The financials are performing well. Goldman Sachs, American Express, and BB&T were all upgraded. Most of the techs are higher. Corning is up 3% on an upgrade. Agilent is up 9% after beating estimates. Texas Instruments is modestly higher on an upgrade. Apple
and Research in Motion look good, but Google is lower. Rosetta Stone was yesterday's dog, down over 25% after lowering guidance. Today some brilliant analyst downgraded the stock. Todays diamond goes to Huron Consulting up 40% as concerns of a accounting scandal wane. After the first hour, the averages remained strong with the Dow up 50 points. The Nasdaq rose 11 points. Through the morning the averages pushed higher. So far so good. In the afternoon, the averages pushed higher once again. Entering the last hour, the Dow was up 90 points. The financials look good. The Nasdaq rose 25 points. The healthcare sector performed great yesterday on a down day. Today, the healthcare sector is one of the few sectors lower due to more government involved. In the last hour, a little bit of a pullback, but not much. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 82 points at 9,217. The S&P 500 Index gained 9 points to 989, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 25 points to end at 1,955.

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.