Day Traders Diary

2/19/10

U.S. stocks opened moderately lower on Friday as investors reacted to the Federal Reserves move towards normalized lending. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 27 points to 10,365. The S&P 500 Index fell 4 points to 1,102. The Nasdaq Composite Index declined 8 points to 2,233. The losses seem to have been tempered since the Fed's announcement last night. The financials open modestly lower, but not by much. Charles Schwab was upgraded, but the stock is modestly lower. Morningstar is lower after missing estimates while Huntsman is jumping 6% after easily beating earnings estimates. The techs are lower following disappointing earnings from Dell last night. Dell is down 7%. A couple of techs are higher including Adobe which was upgraded this morning. The commodities are modestly lower thanks in part to a rebound in the U.S. dollar. Freeport McMoRan is up a percent on an upgrade. The retailers look good this morning. Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and JC Penney are both up over 4% following earnings. Best Buy is higher on an upgrade. Anheuser Busch is lower on a downgrade. After the first hour the averages were modestly lower, however the financials have rebounded. Through the morning the averages improved with both the Dow and the Nasdaq moving into the green. In the afternoon more of the same. For an option expiration it's pretty quiet. In the last hour the averages sold off then rebounded. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 9 points at 10,402, giving it a weekly gain of 3%. The S&P 500 Index climbed 2 points to 1,109, up 3.1% from the week-ago close. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 2 points to 2,243, leaving it up 2.8% for the week.

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