Day Traders Diary

11/18/09

U.S. stocks opened lower on Wednesday, after news that U.S. housing construction weakened last month dampened bullish sentiment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was declined 11 points to 10,425. The S&P 500 index traded up fractionally to 1,110. The Nasdaq Composite fell 6 points to 2,197. A number of earnings out last night also dampened spirits. Salesforce.com and Autodesk are both down over 3% following cautious outlooks. Research in Motion is lower following another downgrade. The big techs like Google, Amazon, Apple, and IBM are all lower. Microsoft opened modestly higher above $30 a share at a new 52 week high following an upgrade. Next year looks like a good year for the PC market. The U.S. dollar dropped this morning causing the commodity space to move up. Gold moved to another new high. Following a number of down days, the financials are perking up. Bank of America is up 3% on a positive letter written by hedge fund manager John Paulson. American Express is higher after agreeing to buy Steve Case's credit card firm for $300 million. Steve Case made his first billion dollars after selling American Online or AOL. GE is modestly higher thanks to encouraging comments about consumer spending on appliances and lighting. After the first hour the averages moved lower. Through the morning the Dow dropped over 60 points before recovering. The strength in the financials are helping the blue chip average. The Nasdaq remains weak down over 15 points. In the afternoon more of the same. The averages remained in the red, but the financials are holding firm. In the last hour the averages clawed their way back to the unchanged level led in part by the financials. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 11 points at 10,426. The S&P 500 index fell 50 cents to 1,109. The Nasdaq Composite fell 6 points to 2,197.

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