Day Traders Diary

7/11/19

 The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied to a record high on Thursday, led by UnitedHealth shares, after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell spoke to Congress and signaled easier monetary policy going forward with a probable rate cut at the end of the month. The Dow closed up 227 points at 27,088. The Dow has moved a 1,000 points in a little more than a year-and-half. Microsoft has been the best-performing Dow stock since the index's first close above 26,000, surging around 50% in that time. Visa, Cisco Systems and Nike are also up sharply since then.

The health insurers were the best sub sector today with CVS Health (CVS), Cigna (CI), Unitedhealth Group (UNH), Humana (HUM), and Anthem (ANTM) are all up over 4% after the Trump administration withdrew its sweeping proposal to eliminate rebates from government drug plans. On the flip side, the drug stocks were walloped and expected to face more pricing pressure from the government and Presidential candidates.  

The top sectors for the day include the industrials 0.7%, financials 0.6%, and materials 0.4%. The real estate sector was the only laggard due in part to higher U.S. Treasury yields.