Day Traders Diary

7/17/20

The major averages closed mixed to end a volatile week with some of the air coming out the highflying tech sector. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 62 points at 26,671. The S&P 500 squeaked out a gain of 9 points while the Nasdaq rose 29 points even as Netflix dropped sharply and Amazon pulled back by 0.9%, Microsoft dipped 0.6% and Apple slid 0.2%.

Tech's struggle this week as profit-taking hit the tech laden index as money rotated into some value names. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones rose 1.3% and 2.4% respectively this week for their third straight weekly gain. The Nasdaq fell 1% posting its first weekly loss in three.

Friday's moves followed a volatile session that snapped a four-day winning streak for the Dow. Those losses came amid a mixed batch of U.S. economic data and surging coronavirus cases.

The U.S. reported 77,200 coronavirus cases on Thursday, a record, according to Johns Hopkins University. That spike brought the total number of confirmed U.S. infections to more than 3.57 million. Covid-related deaths are up to more than 138,000.

In other earnings news, BlackRock rose 3% thanks to record inflows while transports J.B. Hunt rose 3% and Kansas City Southern rose a percent.

US. Treasuries ended the session little changed. The 2-yr yield declined one basis point to 0.14%, and the 10-yr yield increased two basis points to 0.63%. The U.S. Dollar Index declined 0.4% to 95.95. WTI crude futures declined 0.5%, or $0.20, to $40.56/bbl.