Day Traders Diary

8/26/20

The major averages rose once again with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite making new fresh record highs building on their massive rallies off the March lows, as tech shares keep leading the way higher.

The broader market index advanced 1% to 3,478.73 while the Nasdaq popped 1.7% to end the day at 11,665.06. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 83.48 points, or 0.3% to end at 28,331.

Shares of Salesforce surged 26% — their biggest one-day gain ever — after the software company posted blowout earnings after the bell on Tuesday.  Salesforce will be added to the Dow at the end of August, S&P Dow Jones Indices said Monday. The changes are driven by Apple's coming stock split, which will reduce the technology weighting in the price-weighted average.

Facebook and Netflix jumped 8.2% and 11.6%, respectively. Amazon advanced nearly 3% while Alphabet and Microsoft gained 2.4% and 2.2%, respectively. Apple rose 1.4%.

Wednesday's gains put the S&P 500 up more than 58% since hitting an intraday low on March 23. The Nasdaq has soared by 75% in that time period.

Drug maker, Moderna jumped on news their coronavirus vaccine showed promising results in a small trial of patients aged 56 and older.  

U.S. durable goods orders jumped by 11.2% in July, easily topping a 4.3% estimates.

U.S. Treasuries finished the day little changed. The 2-yr yield decreased one basis point to 0.15%, and the 10-yr yield increased one basis point to 0.69%. The U.S. Dollar Index declined 0.1% to 92.91. WTI crude futures increased by 0.1% to $43.39/bbl.