Day Traders Diary

3/2/20

The major averages surge to the best day in 11 years. The Dow closed up 1,293 points, the best point move in history, with a 5.1% gain closing at 26,703. The move on a percentage basis was the Dow's biggest since March 2009. The S&P 500 climbed 4.6%, its best one-day performance since Dec. 26, 2018. The Nasdaq Composite had its best day since 2018, surging 4.5% to 8,952.

Monday's gains snapped a seven-day losing streak for the Dow.

Apple shares led the Dow higher with a 9.3% jump; Merck and Walmart gained 6.3% and 7.6%, respectively. Utilities, tech, consumer staples and real estate all rose more than 5% to lead the S&P 500 higher.

The major averages had their worst weekly performance since 2008. Last week and entered correction territory, down more than 10% from all-time highs set last month. Even with today's rally, the Dow and Nasdaq were 9.7% and 9% below their respective record highs.  The S&P 500 ended the day 8.9% below its all-time high.

All eleven sectors finished the day in positive territory with nine groups climbing at least 3.0%. Countercyclical sectors like utilities (+5.9%), consumer staples (+5.5%), and real estate (+5.1%) outperformed throughout the day while the top-weighted technology sector (+5.7%) also made a significant contribution to the Monday advance.

Growing stimulus hopes contributed to another day of gains in the Treasury market, pressuring the 10-yr yield to a fresh record low (1.059%) in morning trade. Treasuries finished the day near their starting levels with the 10-yr yield down four basis points to 1.09%.