Day Traders Diary

6/28/19

The major averages rallied into the close, boosted by bank shares, as investors looked ahead to a key meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 73 points to 26,599, led by J.P. Morgan Chase. The 30-stock index rallied more than 7% this month, notching its biggest June gain since 1938. The S&P 500 advanced 0.6% to 2,941, led by the financial sector. For the month, the S&P 500 jumped 6.9%, its best June performance since 1955. The broad index is also up more than 17% this year, marking its biggest first-half gain since 1997. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.5% to end the day at 8,006. The tech-heavy index also rallied 7.4% this month.

J.P. Morgan Chase jumped 2.7% while Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo all closed more than 2% higher. Their gains come after they passed the Fed's annual stress test and got approval to boost dividends and share repurchase programs. Goldman hiked its quarterly dividend by nearly 50% while J.P. Morgan raised its dividend by 10 cents.

The S&P 500 financials sector rose 1.4% as the Fed did not object to the capital plans of 18 of the largest banking institutions which have excess capital of $800 billion. The rest of the S&P 500 sectors also finished higher, buoyed by a last-minute pop into the close. The energy rose 1.2%, industrials rose 1.0%, and materials rose 0.9%.