Day Traders Diary

8/21/09


U.S. stocks kicked off Friday sharply higher with energy stocks in the lead with crude prices pushing to new highs of the year above $74 a barrel. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 45 points to 9,395. The S&P 500 Index added 6 points to 1,013 while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 11 points to 2,000. The retail earnings keep coming in. Gap is up 3% on solid earnings and two upgrades. Aeropostale is up 6% on strong earnings and an upgrade. JM Smuckers is up 5% on strong earnings. Childrens Place and Dicks are higher on upgrades. AnnTaylor and Pacific Sunwear are lower following earnings. In the tech sector Salesforce.com is up 14% on strong earnings while Brocade is lower by 6% following earnings. Google is up a percent to new recent highs following a Goldman Sachs upgrade on Thursday. At 10 o'clock the averages received a jolt to the upside thanks to better than expected housing sales numbers for July. The Dow shot up 150 points led by the financials. The Nasdaq rose 24 points. Can't keep this market down. One sector not participating in the rally are the solar stocks thanks to Jefferies downgrading the group. First Solar is down 3% on the day. Through the morning and into the afternoon, the averages remained strong. The financials look great. Citigroup, AIG, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac keep pushing higher. In the last hour the Dow and Nasdaq pushed to new highs for the year. Go figure. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 155 points, or 1.7%, to close at 9,505. The S&P 500 added 18 points, or 1.9%, to end at 1,026 while the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 31 points, to 1.6%, to 2,020. Another great week.

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