Day Traders Diary

1/12/10

U.S. stocks fell at Tuesday's start, with the materials sector dragged down by Alcoa's disappointing results. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 55 points to 10,608. The S&P 500 fell 7 points to 1,139. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 14 points to 2,297. Alcoa is down 8% this morning dragging all the commodities lower. Chevron is down a percent after having their numbers cut at Credit Suisse. The big cap techs continue to show weakness. A number of techs received upgrades this morning including Microsoft, AMD, Analog Devices, Qlogic, and Altera. Only Qlogic is higher. The financials are quiet, modestly lower this morning. American Express is higher on an upgrade. The insurance stocks are higher after Hartford dramatically raised guidance. Prudential and Aflac both received upgrades this morning. The retail space is lower although a number of them received upgrades this morning. Valspar, Radioshack, William Sonoma, Home Depot, Lowes, Under Armour, and American Eagle were all upgraded this morning. Tiffanys and DSW raised guidance this morning. DSW is the only one higher. WD-40 is lower after beating earnings estimates last night. Electronic Arts is down 8% after lowering estimates. Supervalu is jumping 8% after beating estimates this morning. After the first hour the Dow was down 18 points. The Nasdaq declined 16 points. Through the morning the averages sold back off toward the lows of the day. In the afternoon the averages made new lows for the day. Very few stocks remain in the green. In the last hour the averages recovered, sold off, then recovered a little into the close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 37 points at 10,626. The S&P 500 dropped 10 points to 1,136 while the Nasdaq Composite Index declined 30 points to 2,282.

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