Day Traders Diary

7/15/19

The major averages notched new record highs ahead of corporate earnings season. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 27 points at 27,359. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite also closed modestly higher. The major indexes also posted intraday all-time highs earlier in the session.

Citigroup kicked off the earnings season by reporting second-quarter numbers that topped analyst expectations. Citigroup and the rest of the banks finished in the red. Other big banks like J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs are expected to report quarterly earnings later this week.

The outlook for this earnings season is bleak. Analysts expect S&P 500 earnings to fall by 3% in the second quarter.

On the merger front, Symantec dropped 10% after chipmaker, Broadcom walked away from merger talks after Symantec refused to accept less than $28 a share. The deal would have been Broadcom's second big bet in software, following its $18 billion takeover last year of CA Technologies.

European drug maker, Galapagos rose 17% after receiving a $5 billion investment from Gilead Science. Galapagos will use the proceeds to expand and accelerate its research and development programs. Gilead will receive an exclusive product license and option rights to develop and commercialize all current and future programs in all countries outside Europe. Analysts liked the deal upgrading Galapagos with a $205 price target and upgrading Gilead with a $88 price target.

Overseas, China's economic growth slowed to 6.2% in the second-quarter from a year earlier, its weakest pace in at least 27 years, as the trade war with the U.S. took its toll. Still, China's gross domestic product growth was in line with expectations. China's Shanghai Composite increased 0.4% for the day.