Day Traders Diary

7/13/15

A big rally evaporated as California closed their doors to indoor activities. The Dow Jones Industrial Average eked out a gain of 10.50 points after rallying as much as 563 points, or 2.2%. The S&P 500 finished down 29 points or nearly 1% after rallying more than 1% briefly pushing the broad index into positive territory for the year.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite took the brunt of the selling pulling back 2.1% to 10,390 after being up as much as 1.95%. Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Alphabet all closed at least 1.7% lower. Apple fell 0.5% and Microsoft lost 3.1%. Earlier in the day, these stocks were broadly higher. Shares of Tesla fell 16% from new highs set earlier in the afternoon.

Losses accelerated, taking the market into negative territory, after California Governor Newsom announced all counties have to re-close indoor operations in several business sectors due to the coronavirus.

The rally started with Pfizer and bioNtech as their two COVID-19 vaccine candidates received fast-track designation from the FDA.

In other developments, PepsiCo rose after beating top and bottom-line estimates. In M&A news, Analog Devices acquired Maxim Integrated for approximately $21 billion in stock.

U.S. Treasuries ended the session near their flat lines. The 2-yr yield was flat at 0.16%, and the 10-yr yield increased one basis point to 0.64%. The U.S. Dollar Index decreased 0.1% to 96.54. WTI crude decreased 1.2%, or $0.49, to $40.08/bbl.