Day Traders Diary
11/7/2008
U.S. stocks opened higher on Friday after two days of steep losses. We knew the economic news would get worse and now we're finding out some of the numbers. The October unemployment rate jumped to a 14-year high of 6.5% with nearly a quarter million jobs lost. As typical with this market, we rally on bad news. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 97 points to 8,793. The S&P 500 jumped 8 points to 913, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 18 points to 1,626. Through the first hour, the averages started to pull back, but then rallied once again. The financials are higher, but not by much. It didn't take Goldman Sachs long to fall into the red. Genworth Financials is down 40% on dismal numbers. Wells Fargo is down 4% after pricing their $11 billion in new shares. The techs look good so far today. Qualcomm is up 8% after beating estimates. I forgot companies could beat estimates. Through the morning and into the afternoon the averages improved, but it doesn't feel like much of a rally. Disney opened lower today, but is now up 6% after missing estimates this morning. One stock doing better than Disney is Fluor Corp up 23%. The industrial company beating estimates and actually raised guidance. Wow. In the afternoon, the Dow rallied as much as 250 points before President elect Obama's speech. Entering the last hour, the Dow was up only 125 points. In the last hour the averages actually rebounded. Corning is higher on insider buying. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 248 points to close at 8,943, giving it a weekly loss of 4.1%. The S&P 500 climbed 25 points to 930, off 3.9% for the week. The Nasdaq Composite gained 38 points to 1,647, but dropped 4.3% on the week.All comments contained herein are for informational purposes only, and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. The firm does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information or make any warranties regarding results from it's usage.