Day Traders Diary

12/16/10

U.S. stocks opened strongly higher on Tuesday, with rising commodity prices pulling material and energy companies higher. European markets performed well this morning even though the debt of Greece remains a big issue. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 71 points to 10,171. The S&P 500 Index rose 8 points to 1,084. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 14 points to 2,198. Everything looks pretty good this morning. As mentioned the commodities are strong. The fertilizers are sharply higher thanks to encouraging results from CF Industries. Chevron and Anadarko Petro are both up over 2% on upgrades. Transocean is up a percent after announcing a share buyback. The techs are performing well. Dell, Intel, and Autodesk are higher on upgrades. Research in Motion is lower by 2% as their CEO warns of a smartphone bandwidth crisis in the coming years. The financials opened higher, but remain a weak link in this rebound. Barclays is strong, jumping 10% on strong earnings. Deutsche Bank is up 3% on an upgrade. Capital One is up 3% on an upgrade. Allstate is up a percent on an upgrade, while Lincoln Financial is down a percent on a downgrade. The REIT sector is modestly higher on news Simon Property is bidding $10 billion for the bankrupt General Growth Properties. The retail sector is mixed this morning. Fossil is up 6% after easily beating earnings estimates. Waste Management and Abercrombie & Fitch are both up over 2% on earnings. Darden Restaurants is up 3% after the company raised estimates. Gap is lower on a downgrade. After the first hour the Dow remained strong up 80 points. The Nasdaq remained up 14 points. Through the morning the averages kept pushing higher. The Dow rose over 120 points into the lunch hour. The Nasdaq improved by 23 points. The financials have perked up, helping lift the averages. Through the afternoon the averages inched higher closing near the highs of the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 169 points, or 1.7%, at 10,268. The S&P 500 Index rose 19 points, or 1.8%, to 1,094. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 30 points, or 1.4%, to 2,214.

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