Day Traders Diary

1/2/20

The strong rally in 2019 continued in the first trading day of the new year with the major averages closing at new highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 330 points, or 0.9% to 28,868, notching its biggest one-day gain since Dec. 6th. The S&P 500 closed 0.8% higher marking its best performance since Dec. 12th while the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.3% to end at 9,092 with its best day since Oct. 11th.

Chip stocks led the way on Wall Street. Advanced Micro Devices was up by 7.1% while Taiwan Semiconductor and Micron Technology both gained at least 3%. KLA and Intel rose by 2.5% and 1.7%, respectively. Apple was among the best-performing Dow stocks, closing 2.3% higher and hitting $300 per share for the first time. The semiconductor sector surged over 60% in 2019, its best one-year performance since 2003.

The mega-cap stocks in the S&P 500 all performed well with Apple up 2.3%, over $300 for the first time. Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook rose over 2% while Microsoft rose 1.85%.

Four sectors closed in the red including utilities, real estate, materials and consumer staples. Small-cap and mid-cap stocks underperformed as well.

Longer-dated U.S. Treasuries advanced causing curve-flattening activity. The 2-yr yield was unchanged at 1.57%, and the 10-yr yield declined four basis points to 1.88%. The U.S. Dollar Index rose 0.4% to 96.81. WTI crude increased 0.1% (+0.05) to $61.15/bbl.