Day Traders Diary

7/14/20

The Dow rose for a third straight day led by non-tech stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 556 points or 2.1%, at 26,642. It was the 30-stock average's best day since June 29. The S&P 500 climbed 1.3% to 3,197 while the Nasdaq Composite was up nearly 1% to 10,488.

Caterpillar was the best-performing Dow stock, rising more than 4%. Exxon Mobil and Chevron were up more than 3% each as well. Boeing closed 2.5% higher while JP Morgan rose half a percent following earnings. At the S&P 500 sector level, energy jumped 3.6% while materials and industrials each gained more than 2%.

Sentiment also got a boost after Florida reported a daily coronavirus case increase that was below a seven-day average. California's daily Covid case rate decreased slightly from Monday's as well.

Big Tech lagged for once. Amazon and Netflix were down 0.6% and 0.1%, respectively. Alphabet rose 0.6% after being down for most of the day.

Shares of major tech companies were coming off a sharp reversal that negated a broader market rally in the previous session.

The Nasdaq Composite rose nearly 2% to a record before ending Monday's session down more than 2%. Bespoke Investment Group also pointed out Monday marked the third time since 1985 that the Nasdaq hit an intraday record before ending a session down more than 1%.

JPMorgan Chase reported better-than-expected results for the second quarter on the back of a massive surge in trading revenue. Citigroup's second-quarter earnings were also driven in part by a sharp uptick in trading revenue. JPMorgan shares closed 0.6% higher while Citigroup lost 3.9%.

Wells Fargo struggled, falling 4.6% after reporting a $2.4 billion loss and slashing its dividend to 10 cents per share from 51 cents per share.

In the Treasury market, longer-dated tenors saw increased buying interest following the large credit-loss provisions from the banks. The 2-yr yield declined on basis point to 0.15%, and the 10-yr yield declined three basis points to 0.62%. The U.S. Dollar Index declined 0.2% to 96.29. WTI crude increased 0.4%, or $0.16, to $40.24/bbl.