Day Traders Diary

9/20/19

The major averages sold off to end the week after news broke that the Chinese officials were cutting short their visit to the U.S., dampening hopes around trade negotiations between the two countries. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 159 points or 0.6% at 26,935. The S&P 500 pulled back 0.5% to 2,992. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.8% to 8,117. The major indexes snapped a three-week winning streak. The Dow and Nasdaq fell 1.1% and 0.7%, respectively, for the week. The S&P 500 lost 0.5% this week. Today's trading volume was well above average due to quadruple witching.

A China delegation canceled a visit to U.S. farms in Montana, the Montana Farm Bureau said around midday Friday. Nicole Rolf, the Bureau's director of national affairs said the officials were headed back to China earlier than planned.

President Donald Trump had said China would increase its purchases of U.S. agricultural products as part of a bilateral trade deal. The cancellation may be seen by some investors as a sign the two countries are no closer to reaching a trade deal. Lean hog futures hit their limit-down levels on the report. Caterpillar shares closed 1.5% lower while Boeing lost 1.3%. Apple slid more than 1%.

In Corp news, Scholastic rose 5% following earnings. The TV streaming platform, Roku dropped 19% on a downgrade and concerns of increase competition. Netflix dropped 5% on similar concerns. Chipmaker, Xilinx dropped 6% after the resignation of their CFO.

Treasuries spent the bulk of the day near their flat lines before rallying to highs in the afternoon. The 10-yr yield slipped two basis points to 1.76%.