Day Traders Diary

2/10/10

U.S. stocks managed to open higher as progress is being made in Europe to aid Greece. Investors are also awaiting testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke later this morning. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 7 points to 10,065. The S&P 500 Index inched up half a point to 1,070. The Nasdaq Composite rose 4 points to 2,155. Plenty of earnings keep coming out. Last night a number of techs and financials reported better than expected earnings. National Financial Partners, Baidu, Netgear, and Stifel Financial are all up 6% or better due to earnings. Computer Science is higher thanks to better than expected earnings this morning. Adobe, Dell, and JP Morgan look good this morning due to upgrades. Unfortunately not everything is higher. A number of stocks are trading lower this morning due to earnings including Disney, Bob Evans, XL Capital, BHP Billiton, NY Times, Dean Foods, Louisiana Pacific, Sprint/Nextel, and Marsh & McLennan. The averages were holding in until 10 o'clock when the Fed's testimony was released and hinted to raising rates at least at the discount window. That sent the averages into the red. The financials which have been weak of late are actually holding in there so far. Through the morning the averages remained in the red with only the financials holding firm. Stifel Financial and National Financial Partners are both up over 8% this morning. Not bad. In the afternoon the averages held near the unchanged level. The financials are leading the charge. In the last hour the averages dipped into the red. Volume trailed off as many traders and workers in the Northeast left early ahead of the big snow storm. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 20 points at 10,038. The S&P 500 Index declined 2 points to 1,068, while the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 3 points to 2,147.

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