Day Traders Diary

12/4/09

U.S. stocks opened robustly higher Friday after the November unemployment report exceeded expectations, with the unemployment rate falling from 10.2% in October to 10% last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 102 points to 10,468. The S&P 500 Index added 12 points to 1,112. The Nasdaq Composite rose 28 points to 2,201. Up, up, and away. Thanks to the economic numbers everything is working this morning. A number of techs are performing well. Google, Apple, IBM, Amazon, and Research in Motion are all trading higher. Marvell is jumping 9% to new highs following strong earnings last night. Sandisk and Akamai are both up over 4% thanks to upgrades. The financials are performing well. Barclays is up 4% on an upgrade. Visa and Mastercard are higher thanks to upgrades. Bank of America is holding up after raising $19 billion to pay off the government TARP funds. The retail sector is mixed. Big Lots is up 15% after beating estimates. Under Armour is up 5% on an upgrade. Target, Walmart, Best Buy, JC Penney are all higher. The dog of the day goes Take Two Interactive down 35% after lowering guidance. Smith & Wesson is lower by 17% following okay earnings and lowered guidance. After the first half an hour the Dow rose 130 points to new highs for the year. The Nasdaq rose 37 points to new highs for the year. Through the morning the euphoria wore off as the U.S. dollar started to rise. The rise in the dollar sent gold, oil, and the rest of the commodities lower. The major averages started to pull back as well. Entering the lunch hour, the Dow fell into the red only to rebound in the afternoon. Commodities remain in the red. In the last hour the averages held on to their gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 22 points to 10,388, up 0.8% for the week. The S&P 500 Index rose 5 points to 1,105, up 1.3% from the week-ago close, while the Nasdaq Composite Index added 21 points to close at 2,194 for a weekly gain of 2.6%.

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