Day Traders Diary

12/7/09

U.S. stocks posted mild gains early Monday after faltering at the start, with telecommunication and utility shares fronting the rise thanks to a positive Barrons piece. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 16 points to 10,405. The S&P 500 Index added a point to 1,107. The Nasdaq Composite rose a point to 2,196. In the telecomm sector, AT&T and Verizon are both up 1.5%. Research in Motion is jumping 3% on positive developments regarding China sales. Surprisingly, Apple is trading lower. In the tech sector, the chips continue to perform well. AMD, Texas Instruments, and Brocade Communication were all upgraded. Cisco is at a new high ahead of an analyst day tomorrow. Juniper Networks and Akamai are both higher thanks to an upgrades. In the financial sector American Express, Capital One, and Discover Financial are all higher thanks to upgrades from Bank of America/Merrill Lynch. Metlife is up 3.4% after giving an upbeat mid-quarter update. After the first hour the Dow rose 40 points. The Nasdaq inched up 6 points. Thanks to a rally in the U.S. dollar, commodities like gold and oil are lower. The fertilizer stocks like Potash, Mosaic, and Agrium are all higher. Agrium was upgraded this morning. Through the morning the Dow remained in the green. The Nasdaq hovered just above the unchanged level. In the afternoon the averages gave up their gains heading into the last hour. The financials were selling off. In the last hour the Dow recovered. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up a point at 10,390. The S&P 500 Index fell 2 points to 1,103, while the Nasdaq Composite declined 4 points to 2,189.

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