Day Traders Diary

11/13/09

It's Friday the 13th, or in these parts, it's Colgate Day. The markets open modestly higher with consumer discretionary shares fronting the gains following Walt Disney's better than expected results. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 17 points to 10,214. Disney is trading up 4%. The S&P 500 added a point to 1,088 while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 3 points to 2,152. The retail sector is providing mixed results this morning. At 10 o'clock, a disappointing consumer sentiment number sent the averages lower briefly. Nordstrom is down 4% after missing estimates by a penny. The other retailers are performing much better. JC Penney and Abercrombie & Fitch are both up over 4% following earnings. Kelloggs, Petsmart, Goodyear, and Urban Outfitter are all higher following upgrades. A woman's retailer, Rue 21 is coming public today. After the first hour, the averages shot higher. The Dow rose 80 points. The Nasdaq improved by 12 points. The big techs are performing well. Google, IBM, and Apple are all higher. Agilent Tech is higher by 4% following earnings. Salesforce.com, Juniper, Microsoft, and Qualcomm are higher following upgrades. Palm is up 5% on rumors of a takeover. The financials are quiet this morning. Mastercard was upgraded, but Visa was downgraded. Fifth Third is higher following an upgrade. Through the morning the averages remained strong, but the financials are not participating. In the afternoon the averages gave up half their gains on light volume. In the last hour the averages rebounded into the close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 73 points at 10,270, leaving the blue-chips average up 2.5% for the week. The S&P 500 Index rose 6 points to 1,093, leaving the broader index up 2.3% from the week ago close. The Nasdaq Composite gained 18 points to 2,167.88, leaving it up 2.6% for the week.

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